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THE 


MISSION OF THE COMFORTER, 


NOME ES 


BY 


JULIUS CHARLES HARE, M.A. 


ARCHDEACON OF LEWES, RECTOR OF HERSTMONCEUX, AND LATE 
FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE. 


FROM THE 
SECOND LONDON REVISED EDITION, 
WITH THE 


NOTES TRANSLATED FOR THE AMERICAN EDITION, 


BOSTON: 
aU De AGNE D4 LN CO Li Ne 


59 WASHINGTON STREET. 


1854, 


Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by 
GOULD AND LINCOLN, 
In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 


CAMBRIDGE: 


ALLEN AND FARNHAM, PRINTERS. 


—— ee ————— 


TO 


THE HONORED MEMORY 


OF SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE, 


THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER, 


WHO THROUGH DARK AND WINDING PATHS OF SPECULATION 


WAS LED TO THE LIGHT, 


IN ORDER THAT OTHERS BY HIS GUIDANCE MIGHT REACH THAT LIGHT, 


WITHOUT PASSING THROUGH THE DARKNESS, 
THESE SERMONS ON THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT 
ARE DEDICATED 
WITH DEEP THANKFULNESS AND REVERENCE 
BY ONE OF THE MANY PUPILS 
WHOM HIS WRITINGS HAVE HELPED TO DISCERN 
THE SACRED CONCORD AND UNITY OF 


HUMAN AND DIVINE TRUTH. 


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PREFACE 


~ TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. 


Tue Mission of the Comforter, now offered to the 
friends of Christ in this land, is, with one exception, 
a reprint of the last English Edition. In that edition 
about sixty pages, extracted from several eminent 
Greek, Latin, and French authors, were given in the 
original languages. It has been thought desirable to 
place these extracts within the reach of all who may 
read the work. They have therefore been translated, 
so far as this could be done without counteracting 
the purpose for which they were cited. 'Those who 
are favored with learning and leisure, may regret the 
performance of this labor; for it is always pleasant 
to see the very words which a great writer has em- 
ployed, to “ hear him speak in his own tongue wherein 
he was born;” but if the small number who would 
have preferred the original to a version, bear in mind 
the greater satisfaction and profit which the work as 
now published will afford to the many, the course we 
have taken will be duly appreciated. 

Two or three passages in the following work seem 
to imply the author’s belief in baptismal regeneration. 
We allude to them merely for the purpose of express- 


ing our regret, that this papal error should be found 


Vill PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. 


in a mind otherwise so clear, discriminating, and pro- 
testant. We must also dissent from Archdeacon 
Hare’s opinion, that it is the duty of a church to re- 
vise from time to time, for her members, our version 
of the Scriptures. Whatever advantage might result 
to any single denomination from such a course, would 
be more than counterbalanced, we fear, by the evils 
which would follow the want of a standard version 
and the many sectarian translations which must soon 
appear. 

With these sight abatements the Mission of the 
Comforter is a work of rare excellence. For affluence 
of thought and language, for breadth of view and 
vigor of imagination, for earnestness of tone and sym- 
pathy with the deeper truths of our holy religion, for 
soundness of theology and outspoken love to the great 
doctrine of faith in Christ, for adaptation to men of 
this age and country, who yet breathe the air of spir- 
itual freedom though half-forgetful of their birthright, 
and for scriptural views of Him through whose invis- 
ible presence and aid the church triumphs and Chris- 
tians are sanctified, — for these and similar charac- 
teristics, this book will take a very high place, we 
think, in the judgment of all. May the Holy Spirit, 
whose Mission it aims to portray, make its words 
convincing to the world and refreshing to the people 
of God. Ay ras 


Newton CENTRE, Dec. 10, 1853. 


} 


PREFACE 


TO THE SECOND LONDON EDITION. 


Turse Sermons on the Mission of the Comforter 
were preached before the University of Cambridge in 
March, 1840. My original intention was to point out, 
in the concluding Sermon, how the work of the Com- 
forter in all its parts is fulfilled by His taking of the 
things of Christ, and showing them to us. But, to 
treat this subject adequately, it would have been re- 
- quisite to show how Christ, as God manifest in the 
flesh, and as the Reconciler of man to God, is, and 
ever has been, and ever must be, the one Principle 
and Source of all life and of all light, both collectively 
and individually, in His Church; and such a theme 
was far too vast for a single sermon. Indeed, beside 
the inexhaustible fulness of this truth, when contem- 
plated in itself ideally, and in its relations to the fallen 
state of man, and to the history of the Church, the 
exposition of it would have led to a consideration of 
those false notions of Christ’s personality, which re- 
gard Him as the mere Founder of a system, whether 


moral, or philosophical, or religious, and place Him 


Xx . PREFACE TO THE 


at the head of it, but leave the system to work itself 
out through the impulse it originally received. ‘This 
would have superinduced an examination of the most 
recent form of Socinianism, the Straussian, which, 
after denying the Son and the Spirit, has ended by 
denying the Father also, and has rolled out of the 
chaos of Pantheism into the blank abyss of Atheism. 
To contend against and to exterminate this primary 
error, under all its forms, by the assertion of the di- 
vine personality of Christ, of the redemption and 
reconciliation He has wrought for mankind, and of 
His abiding presence in His Church through the Spirit 
glorifying Him, and to establish these primary truths 
on irrefragable grounds, philological, historical, and 
philosophical, as well as theological, is the great 
work of our age: and all who are striving for the 
truth are bringing their contributions of one kind or 
other for the erection of this heavenly temple. It 
would be a blessed reward if any thing in this volume 
may in any way forward the carrying on of this work. 

T'o the Sermons I have appended a considerable 
body of Notes. Several questions of theological and 
ethical interest having been touched on in them, as 
alone they could be, cursorily and generally, I wished 
to support the opinions expressed by more definite 
arguments, and by the authority of wiser men. As 
there is so much difficulty and obscurity in the brief, 
pregnant verses, in which our Lord declares the three- 
fold work of the Comforter, I thought it might be 


SECOND LONDON EDITION. Xi 


useful to give a sketch of the manner in which those 
verses have been interpreted by the chief divines in 
the various ages of the Church, and that, if this sketch 
were illustrated by extracts from those divines, it 
might aid the theological student in forming an esti- 
mate of the kind of light he may expect from the 
principal periods in the history of Theology. For, 
while the revived study of the theology of earlier ages, 
if carried on critically, with a discernment of that) 
which each age had to effect toward the progressive 
unfolding of the truth, in its world-embracing heighth 
and depth and breadth and fulness, cannot be other-' 
wise than beneficial; on the other hand, if, as we 
have seen happen in a number of instances, the end 
of this study is merely to make us repeat by rote 
what was said in the fourth century, or in the four- 
teenth, instead of becoming wiser, we shall become 
foolisher. Even the swallow’s twitter and the spar- 
row’s chirp are pleasanter than the finest notes of the 
mocking-bird. So the merest truisms of our own age 
are better than the truths of former ages, unless these 
are duly appropriated and assimilated to the body of 
our thoughts. Our intellectual food also, if it is to 
nourish and strengthen us, must be thoroughly di- 
gested. They who complain of this, and call it pre- 
sumption if we exercise our understandings on the 
lessons handed down to us, and do not receive them 
implicitly in reliance on the wisdom of our teachers, 


might as rationally call it presumption in us that we 


xii PREFACE TO THE 


do not swallow our food, without allowing our auda- 
cious teeth to masticate it, and our gastric processes 
to separate the nutritive part from the excremental. 
For such an unreasonable, spurious humility there is 
but one natural home. They who swallow the the- 
ology either of the Fathers, or of the Middle Ages, in 
the gross, find themselves out of place in a Protestant 
Church; and while they wish to revive the Church 
of the Middle Ages, and confound faith with credu- 
lity, they are just fitted for the surrender of their rea- 
son and conscience to the arbitrary mandates of the 
Papacy. 

In the course of the Notes several occasions pre- 
sented themselves for speaking on questions which 
have been agitated in the controversies of the day; 
nor have I shunned them. Above all I have felt it 
an especial duty to call the attention of my readers 
again and again to the inestimable blessings of the 
Reformation, as evinced in the expansion of theology, 
no less than in the purification of religion. ‘There 
are times indeed when one may be willing to throw 
a veil over the faults and sins of another Church; 
even as in the ordinary intercourse of life one is will- 
ing, in the hope of better things, to overlook much 
that may have been very reprehensible in a neighbor. 
But if the neighbor challenges scrutiny, if he reviles 
his betters, if he inveigles others to join him in revil- 
ing them, he must bear the penalty which he draws 


down on his own head. In like manner, now that 


SECOND LONDON EDITION. xii 


the battle of the Reformation is renewed, now that 
the Reformers are attacked with unscrupulous igno- 
, tance and virulence, now that the principles which 
animated them are impugned and denied, now that | 
the whole course of events previously and subse- 
quently, as well as at the time, is strangely misrep- 
resented and distorted, it becomes necessary to defend 
the truth, not only by asserting its majesty and repel- 
ling its foes, but also by carrying the war into the 
enemy’s country. Ifit be put as a question still 
hanging on the balance, whether our Church is a true 
Church, or whether the Church of Rome is the only 
true one, we must not allow false charity to deter us 
from bringing forward the marks which prove the 
Church of Rome to be in so many of its features ut- 
terly antichristian. 

Here it is right to state that the observations on 
the development of Christian doctrine in Note G 
were printed long before the publication of Mr. New- 
man’s work on that subject. Their purpose was to 
help the reader in forming a correct notion on a mat- 
ter, on which, it seemed to me, very erroneous opin- 
ions had been promulgated in Mr. Newman’s Sermon 
before the University of Oxford, and in the writings 
of some of his followers, opinions caught up some- 
what hastily and superficially from certain German 
Romanists, without a clear perception either of their 
grounds or their tendencies, or even of the truth they 


involved; while the extraordinary inferences drawn 


2 


x 


X1v PREFACE TO THE 


from them made the very word development a by 
word of alarm with the opposite party. T’o Mr. 
Newman’s recent work I have purposely avoided all 
reference. Other occasions for speaking of it will 
arise, if indeed there be any necessity of adding to 
what has already been said by my brother-in-law, . 
Mr. Maurice, in the Preface to his Warburtonian 
Lectures, and by Professor Butler in the excellent 
series of Letters which he has inserted in the Irish 
Ecclesiastical Gazette. } 

Another object which I have kept j in view more or 
less, while collecting the materials for the Notes, has 
been to furnish the theological student with a few 
hints or guideposts, so to say, when he enters into 
the region of German theology; which many are 
wont to regard as a vast wilderness peopled with 
“ Gorgons and Hydras and Chimeras dire.” ‘That 
the views conveyed in Mr. Rose’s denunciation were 
utterly erroneous, we were taught in some measure 
by Dr. Pusey in his answers, the most valuable theo- 
logically of his writings. Ignorance, however, has 
not been silenced, and, when it is maledicent, is sure 
to find a credulous auditory; and thus even Mr. 
Dewar’s worthless book is quoted and extolled as an 
authority. That there is an enormous mass of evil, 
of shallow presumption, of ostentatious folly, of wild 
extravagance, in the German theology of the last half 
century, I have no disposition to deny: nevertheless, 
they who know what has really been done in Ger- 


SECOND LONDON EDITION. . XV 


many since the publication of Kant’s great work, © 
must also know that in Germany the mighty intel- 
lectual war of Christendom has been waged, and is 
now going on. If the host of evil has become sub- | 
tiler and more audacious, the army of the faith has 
also become much stronger; and able champions of 
the truth are continually raised up, who defend the 
truth, not by shutting their eyes to its difficulties, and 
hooting at its adversaries, but by calmly refuting 
those adversaries, and solving the difficulties, with 
the help of weapons derived from a higher philology 
and philosophy. In the wish of introducing some of 
these better German divines to the English reader, I 
have availed myself of such opportunities as occurred 
for inserting extracts from them, many of which, 
T trust, will be found to justify the foregoing com- 
mendation. _ 

Of recent English writers, the one with whose . 
sanction I have chiefly desired, whenever I could, 
here or elsewhere, to strengthen my opinions, is the 
great religious philosopher, to whom the mind of our 
generation in England owes moré than to any other 
man. My gratitude to him I have endeavored to, 
express by dedicating the following Sermons to his 
memory; and the offering is so far at least appro- 
priate, in that the main work of his life was to spir- 
itualize, not only our philosophy, but our theology, to 
raise them both above the empiricism into which they 


had long been dwindling, and to set them free from 


Xv1 PREFACE TO THE 


the technical trammels of logical systems. Whether 
he is as much studied by the genial young men of 
the present day, as he was twenty or thirty years ago, 
I have no adequate means of judging: but our theo- 
logical literature teems with errors, such as could 
hardly have been committed by persons whose minds 
had been disciplined by his philosophical method, 
and had rightly appropriated his principles. So far 
too as my observation has extended, the third and 
fourth volumes of his Remains, though they were 
hailed with delight by Arnold on their first appear- 
ance, have not yet produced their proper effect on the 
intellect of the age. It may be that the rich store of 
profound and beautiful thought contained in, them 
has been weighed down, from being mixed with a 
few opinions on points of Biblical criticism, likely to 
be very offensive to persons who know nothing about 
the history of the Canon. Some of these opinions, 
to which Coleridge himself has ascribed a good deal 
of importance, seem to me of little worth; some to 
be decidedly erroneous. Philological criticism, in- 
deed all matters requiring a laborious and accurate 
Anvestigation of details, were alien from the bent and 
habits of his mind; and his exegetical studies, such 
as they were, took place sat a period when he had 
little better than the meagre Rationalism of Hich- 
horn and Bertholdt to help him. Of the opinions 
which he imbibed :-from them, some abode with him 
through life. These, however, along with every thing 


SECOND LONDON EDITION. XVli 


else that can‘justly be objected to in the Remains, do 
not form a twentieth part of the whole, and may 
easily be separated from the remainder. ‘Nor do 
they detract in any way from the sterling sense, the 
clear and farsighted discernment, the power of tracing 
principles in their remotest operations, and of refer- 
ring all things to their first principles, which are man- 
ifested in almost every page, and from which we 
might learn so much. There may be some, indeed, 
who fancy that Coleridge’s day is gone by, and that 
we have advanced beyond him. I have seen him 
numbered, along with other persons who would have 
been no less surprised at their position and company, 
among the pioneers who prepared the way for our 
new theological school. This fathering of Tractari- 
anism, as it is termed, upon Coleridge well deserves 
to rank beside the folly which would father Ration- 
alism upon Luther. Coleridge’s far-reaching vision 
did, indeed, discern the best part of the speculative 
truths which our new school has laid hold on and ex- 
aggerated and perverted. But in Coleridge’s field of 
view they were comprised along with the comple- 
mental truths which limit them, and in their con- 
junetion and coérdination with which alone they 
retain the beneficent power of truth. He saw what 
our modern theologians see, though it was latent 
from the vulgar eye in his days: but he also saw 
what they do not see, what they have closed their 

9Q* 


XVill PREFACE TO THE 


eyes on; and he saw far beyond them, because he 
saw things in their universal principles and laws. 

I know not whether I need remark that the Ser- 
mons are of course complete in themselves, and that, 
though the Notes are suggested’ by them, and are 
intended to illustrate them, they are not meant to be 
read so as to interrupt the argument of the text, but 


may more suitably be reserved till afterward. 


Herstmonceux, Whit-Tuesday, June 2d, 1846. 


In republishing these Sermons on the Mission of 
the Comforter, I have separated them from those 
which were subjoined to them in the first edition ; 
and I have reserved the overgrown Note in vindica- 
tion of Luther for a volume by itself. ‘To the other 
Notes a few additions have been made, of which the 
most important are extracts from Stier’s admirable 
Exposition of our Lord’s Discourses. I have also 
added an-index, in compliance with wishes expressed 
in several quarters. 

My recognition that there is any thing good in 
German Theology, and my attempt to point out 
where that good is to be found, have excited some 
vehement denunciations, as I expected, from those 
who know nothing about it. One of these I an- 


swered, in a Pamphlet, which the conduct of my 


SECOND LONDON EDITION. X1x 


assailant led me to head with the words of the 
Ninth Commandment. My answer was followed 
by a reply in the next number of the English Re- 
view. But when gross misrepresentations, after be-— 
ing thoroughly exposed, are unretracted, and attempts 
are made to defend them by shuffling evasions, no 
benefit can arise from the centinuance of such a con- 
troversy. May the Spirit of Truth watch over our 
Church, and preserve us from all the subtile tempta- . 
tions of the Father of lies! Never were such temp- 
tations more deceptive than now: never had he more 
emissaries stalking abroad. He lies in wait at the 
door of every heart: he tries to creep in under the 
guise of some holy feeling. Nevertheless let us hold 
fast to the conviction that, though he is the Prince of » 


this world, yet he has been judged. 


Herstmoncevx, November 12th, 1850. 


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CONTENTS. 


SERMON I. 


THE EXPEDIENCY OF CHRIST’S DEPARTURE. 
John xvi. 7. ; PAGE 
Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is expedient for you that 
Igo away. For if I go not away, the Comforter will not come 
to you; butif I depart, 1 willsend Him to you. . . : 25 


SERMON II. 


THE CONVICTION OF SIN. 
John xvi. 8, 9. 


When the Comforter is come, He will convince the world of Sin, 
and of Righteousness, and of Judgment; of Sin, because they 
believe not in Me. ; : ; : : ‘ : : ee 


SERMON III. 


THE CONVICTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 
John xvi. 8, 10. 


When the Comforter is come, He will convince the world of 
Sin. and of Righteousness, and of Judgment; of Righteousness 

Ps fo) : 3 D >) tes) 5) 
because I go to My Father, and ye see Me no more. ; : 102 


SERMON IV. 


THE CONVICTION OF JUDGMENT. 
John xvi. 8, 11. 
When the Comforter is come, He will convince the world of 
Sin, and of Righteousness, and of Judgment; of Judgment, be- 
cause the Prince of this world is judged. : : : . 142 


XxXll CONTENTS. 


SERMON V. 
THE THREEFOLD CONVICTION OF THE COMFORTER, 


John xvi. 8-11. 


When the Comforter is come, He will convince the world of 
Sin, and of Righteousness, and of Judgment; of Sin, because 
they believe not in Me; of Righteousness, because I go to My 
Father, and ye see Me no more; of Judgment, because the Prince 


of this world is judged. ; : ; : : errr 
Nore A. 

Analogies to the Expediency of Christ’s Departure. tee 
Note B. 


On John xvi. 13. Errors in our Translation from the use of a 
Latin version. How the Spirit will lead us to all Truth. 


Note C, 
Christ’s exaltation consequent on His departure. His promise 
to Peter. : : : : i : d : : 


Notes D, E, F. 


Expediency of Christ’s departure with reference to the 
Apostles. : : : : : : 2 


Nore G. 


‘Bearing of John xvi. 7 on the Procession of the Holy Ghost. — 
On the gradual Development of theological doctrines. — Misuse 
of Arguments from Metaphors. 


Nore H. 


On John vii. 39. On the gifts of the Spirit prior and subse- 
quent to Christ’s Ascension.—On the exegetical value of the 
Fathers, of the Reformers, of our Divines in the 17th and 18th 
centuries, of the German Rationalists, and of the German Diyines 
of the present day. : : ; ° . 


173 


221 


224 


231 


235 


240 


CONTENTS. Xxlli 


Nore I. 


On John xiy. 15, 16,17. Change wrought in the Apostles by 
the Spirit. : : : ; : ‘ : : : : 326 


Nore J. 
On the expediency of Christ’s spiritual departure. . ° 340 


‘N 


Note K. 


On the meaning of the name Paraclete. - : : : 348 


‘ Nore L. 
On the meaning of ééyyery in John xvi. 8. www 8 
Note M. 


On the subjects of the Comforter’s conviction. . Te 370 


Nore N. 


On 1 Corinth. xiv. 24. On the meaning of mgopytsvely, 
iOvatng. On the dignity of Preaching. On Christian Ex- 
pediency. : : : ; : ‘ ‘ : : : 375 


Nore O. 
On Titus We 9, a e . e ° ° e e >. se 885 


Nore P. 
On the World as reproved by the Comforter... ‘ : 385 


Nore Q. 
On the conviction of Sin: catena of interpretations. On unbe- 
lief as the parent of sin. : F ; : : 7 389 
Nore R. 
On the comfort of the Comforter’s reproof. > : és a ALG 
Note 5. 


On Plato’s expulsion of Poets from his Republic. . . 420 


XX1V CONTENTS. 


Nore T. 


On the excessive admiration of Power. 


Note U. 


On the necessity of living Righteousness. 


Note V. 


On Plato’s views concerning Marriage. 


Nott W. 


On the Comforter’s conviction of Righteousness. 
ow) 


Notre X. 


On the moral effect of calamities. 


Nore Y, 


On the conviction of Judgment. 


Note Z. 


Inefficacy of suffering to subdue sin. 


Notre AA. 


Augustin on John xii. 31. 


Nore AB. 


On the continual work of the Comforter. 


Nore AC. 


On the triple conviction of the Comforter. 


Nore AD. 


The existence of witches not incompatible with the Judement 


of the Prince of this world. 


° 


. 


423 


434 


436 


437 


461 


463 


482 


483 


484 


487 


492 


Sele lM O Nk 


THE EXPEDIENCY OF CHRIST’S DEPARTURE. 


NEVERTHELESS I TELL YOU THE TRUTH: IT Is EXPEDIENT FOR YOU THAT 
IGO AWAY. FORIFI GO NOT AWAY, THE COMFORTER WILL NOT COME 
TO YOU; BUT IF I DEPART, I WiLL SEND HIM TO You. — John xvi. 7. 


Turse words, it will be remembered, stand in the 
middle of that divine discourse, in which our blessed 
Lord, on the eve of His crucifixion, endeavors to 
cheer and lift up the hearts of His disciples, opening 
their eyes at the same time to see further than they 
had ever yet looked, into the mysteries of the King- 
dom of Heaven. In the verses which follow, He 
goes on to declare what are to be the workings of 
the Comforter here promised. The whole passage, 
though it is not without difficulty, is a rich treasure 
of the most precious truths, bearing both on the 
deepest questions of doctrine, and on the practical 
discipline of our hearts and lives. Therefore, know- 
ing no subject of wider and more lasting interest, — 
inasmuch as its interest is coéxtensive with the 
Church of Christ, and will last to the end of the 
world, while it comes home to the conscience of 
every faithful member of that Church,— JI have 
thought that it might not be unprofitable to call 
your attention, during the present Course of Ser- 

3 


26 THE EXPEDIENCY 


mons, to this promise of the Comforter ; whose com- 
ing, as it was to be so great a blessing to the imme- 
diate disciples of our Lord, has in like manner been 
the source of infinite blessings through all ages in the 
Church; and whose work in the heart of every true 
believer has been the very same which is set forth 
in the verses immediately after the text. May He, 
who alone can, even the Comforter Himself, who is 
the Spirit of Truth, teach me to discern the myste- 
ries of that grace, which He is ever pouring on the 
Church of Christ! May He open my lips to speak 
the truth! and may He carry that truth with power 
and with conviction to your hearts! 

On that last evening, when the work, which the 
Son of God had come down from heaven to perform, 
was drawing to its close, He tells His disciples of 
the heavy sorrows and afflictions which were hanging 
over them. He tells them, more plainly than ever 
before, of that greatest and heaviest sorrow, that 
they were to be separated from Him,— how He was 
about to go away, and how, whither He went, they 
could not come, at least not for a time. He tells 
them also of the tribulation and persecution which 
they would have to endure in the world, — how the 
time was coming when whosoever killed them would 
think he did God service. But He does not tell 
them all this to the end that their hearts should be 
troubled, that they should grieve and faint at the 
thought of the trials which awaited them. His 
words to tis.His servants, who trust in Him and 
love Him, are never meant to give pain. ‘Though 
they may be bitter in the mouth, they are always 
medicinal, and, unlike the book eaten in the apoca- 


OF CHRIST’S DEPARTURE. hired 


lyptic vision, turn to sweetness within. His purpose, 
in speaking to His disciples of the sufferings which 
were to fall upon them, was, that, when all came to 
pass according to His word, they should not be 
offended and startled, so as to lose their hold of the 
truth, but should remember how He had told them 
of every thing beforehand, and thus even in their 
sufferings should find fresh proofs of His divine wis- 
dom and knowledge; so that, having their faith in 
Him enlivened and strengthened more and more by 
every trial, they might be of good cheer, and in Him 
might have peace. With this purpose, in order that 
they might have a sure hope to lean on, when dan- 
ger was gathering round and assailing them, He 
speaks to them again and again of a great consola- 
tion and blessing which they were to receive, of 
a Comforter, another Comforter, whom the Father 
would give to them, and who would abide with them 
forever. This Comforter, He says to them, is the 
Spirtt of Truth. He is the Holy Ghost, whom the 
Father will send in My name; and He will teach you 
all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, 
whatsoever Ihave said to you: and He will testify of 
Me. And so measureless and priceless were the 
blessings which this Comforter would bestow, that 
our Lord assures His disciples, it was expedient for 
them, it was for their advantage, that He should go 
away: for unless [go away, the Comforter will not 
come to you; but, if I depart, I will send Him to you. 

No other words could have expressed so strongly 
what a rich and gracious and peerless gift that of the 
Comforter was to be. For never was there any 
intercourse or communion upon earth between man 


28 THE EXPEDIENCY 


and man, the blessedness of which could for a mo- 
ment be compared with that found by the disciples 
in the presence of their Lord. Although Jerusalem, 
with her priests and her doctors, —the expounders . 
of the Law which prepared the way for Him, and 
the ministers of the sacrifices which foreshowed 
Him,— would not. listen when He wished to gather 
them beneath the wings of His love, the fishermen 
of Galilee had listened to His call, and had come to 
Him, and had found shelter. As they had forsaken 
ail for His sake, in Him they had found far more 
_than all. They had found shelter, even as children 
find shelter beneath the guardian care of their pa- 
rents. ‘They had found every thing that a child 
can receive from the wisest and most loving of 
fathers, only of a more perfect kind, and in a higher 
degree, —help in every need, relief from every anx- 
iety and care, support under every distress, consola- 
ion under every affliction, an abundant, overflowing 
supply for every want of body’and soul, of heart and 
mind, ‘They came to Him for food; and He gave 
them food wherewith to feed thousands: yea, desti- 
tute as they were, and although the wilderness was 
spread around them, He gave them spiritual food 
wherewith to feed the whole world through all the 
generations of mankind, and worldfuls over and 
/ above. They complained to Him of the fruitless- 
ness of their labors, how they had toiled, and toiled, 
and taken nothing; and at His word they drew in 
such a draught, that they were dismayed at their sue- 
cess, and began to sink beneath its weight. They 
cried to him in their terror at the storm which was 
raging around them; and the winds and the waves 


OF CHRIST’S DEPARTURE. 29 


were hushed by the breath of His omnipotent word. 
In Him they had the fulness of Truth and Grace 
and Wisdom and Peace and Love, yea, the fulness 
of God, dwelling with them, talking with them face 
to face, bearing patiently with all their infirmities, 
upholding them against their own frailties and per- 
versities, warning them against all dangers, and, 
. when through neglect of his warning they fell, lifting 
them up again, strengthening their hearts and souls, 
pouring His light into their understandings, and 
guiding and leading them onward in the way of 
‘everlasting life. Time after time too they had been 
taught by grievous experience, that, safe and strong 
and clearsighted as they were by the side of their 
Master, when away from Him they were still feeble 
and helpless and blind. Yet, notwithstanding all 
this, notwithstanding the blessings which the disci- 
ples were daily and hourly receiving from the pre- 
sence of their Lord, notwithstanding the many sad 
proofs they had seen of their own ignorance and 
weakness when out of His sight, still, such was the 
riches of the grace which the promised Comforter 
was to bestow on them, that, for the sake of obtain- 
ing that grace, it was expedient for them, Jesus tells 
them, it was better for them, that He should go 
away and leave them, so that the Comforter might 
come to them in His stead, and might dwell with 
them and in them. 

This must have sounded very strange in their ears. 
They must have been unwilling and unable to be- 
lieve it. They could not but think at the moment, 
that no happiness would ever be like the happiness 
they had found in their daily communion with their 

or 


30) THE EXPEDIENCY 


Master, —that no calamity could be like the calam- 
ity of being parted from Him. Thus, when they 
heard His saying, sorrow filled their hearts. 'There- 
fore our Saviour enforces His words with an un- 
wonted strength of assurance: Nevertheless I tell you 
the truth. We had always told them the truth. He 
was full of truth; and, whenever He spake, truth 
was in all His words. Nay, He was Himself the 
Truth, the eternal Truth of God. Yet on this occa- 


sion, seelng their sorrow, knowing how deep and:bit- 


ter it must be, He vouchsafed to give them a special 
solemn assurance, that, as His words had always 
been true, so were they now, and so would they who 
believed them find them, as they had always found 
them to be. Incredible as it must needs seem to 
them, vehemently as their hearts revolted from the 
thought that any thing could make amends to them 


for the loss of their Master, still He told them the ~ 


truth: it was expedient for them, it was for their 
good, for their great moral and spiritual good, that 


Tle should go away, and that they should be sepa : 


from Him. 


But how could this possibly be? How could it- 


be for the good of the disciples that Jesus should go 
away, and leave them to themselves? He had been 
every thing to them. He had raised them out of the 
ignorance, to which they were born. He had taught 
them to know and to worship God, as God had never 
been known and worshipped by man, — to know Him 
as the God of love, and to worship Him in spirit and 
in truth. He had fed them with the twofold bread 
of earthly and of heavenly life. He had been their 
Guide, their Teacher, their Guardian, their ever- 


OF CHRIST’S DEPARTURE. SL 


present, all-sufficient Friend. All their hopes, all 
their trust, all their thoughts, all their affections, all 
their desires, were bound up in Him. How could it 
be for their advantage, that He should go away and 
leave them ? | 

Let us consider whether there is any thing in the 
ordinary relations of human life, that can help us to 
understand this. If we look through those relations, 
the one nearest akin to that in which the disciples 
stood to their Master, is plainly that which was just 
now compared with it, between children and their 
parents. He had been every thing to them, as 
parents are to their children; and they had looked to 
Him, had trusted in Him, had cast all their cares 
upon Him, as children, without taking thought for 
themselves, trustfully cast all their cares upon their 
parents. Now, according to the divinely constituted 
order of the world, the time, we know, comes for all 
children, when their entire dependence and reliance 
upon their parents must cease. The time comes, 
when they must pass from under the eye of their 
parents, and walk alone. And it is expedient for 
them that this should be so. As it is expedient for 
children, that at first they should be carried in the 
arms of their mothers, and that then they should 
walk in leading-strings, or with some other like sup- 
port, and so should learn by little and little to walk 
alone, and that for a long time they should do every 
thing in strict obedience, according to the commands 
of their parents, as though they had no will of “their 
own, so, on the other hand, as they advance toward 
years of discretion, is it expedient that the human 
helps, on which they have been accustomed to. lean 


oe THE EXPEDIENCY 


wholly, should one by one be taken away from them. 
Constant watchfulness and directions are succeeded 
for awhile by occasional watchfulness and directions ; 
commands are superseded by counsel; and after a 
time we no longer have even the counsel of our 
natural monitors, but are left to the exercise of our 
own judgment, and to the advice of such friends as 
the course of life may bring across our path. Such 
is the order which God has appointed for the life of 
man: and this order is expedient (a.) We know 
that it must be so, seeing that He has ordained it; 
and we can perceive moreover why it is so. Not be- 
cause it is the glory of man to have a will of his own, 
and to walk by the light of his own understanding, 
beneath the supreme, unchecked sway of that will. 
A Heathen indeed might say this, and might allege 
strong grounds for his assertion; though even he, if 
he desired to walk rightly and steadfastly, would 
have subordinated his own understanding and will 
to the manifestations of a higher Understanding and 
a higher Will discernible in the institutions and belief 
of his countrymen. But we have a revelation of the 
perfect Wisdom and perfect Will of God. An at- 
mosphere of eternal Truth compasses us about. We 
are born in the midst of it: we are taught to breathe 
it from our childhood: and the great aim and busj- 
ness of our lives should be to bring our understand- 
ing and our will into harmony with it, to set them at 
one with it. Far assuredly is it from expedient that 
man should be left to the guidance of his own dim- 
sighted understanding, and to the sway of his own 
headstrong will. But, as the reason why children are 
bound to obey their parents with a full, implicit, un- 


OF CHRIST’S DEPARTURE. 30 


swerving obedience is, that their parents for the time 
stand in the stead of God to them,—whence we 
further perceive what is the rightful limit to that obe- 
dience, namely, when the parent’s command is plainly 
contrary to an express commandment of God, —as, 
I say, they who know of no father but an earthly 
one, must obey that earthly father, who is the author, 
supporter, and guardian of their life,—so, on the 
other hand, when they have been taught to look up 
to Him who has vouchsafed to call Himself our 
Heavenly Father, — when they have been taught to 
see His love, and to know His will, — it is expedient 
for them that they should pass from under their com- 
plete subjection to their earthly father, in order that 
they may live more consciously and dutifully in the 
presence, beneath the eye, and under the law of their 
Heavenly Father.. It is expedient for them that they 
should pass from under the immediate control of their 
earthly parents, not in order that they may do their 
own will, but that they may do the will of God,— 
that the shadow may give place to the substance, the 
earthly type to the heavenly reality, —in order that 
they may live more entirely by a longer-sighted, 
further-reaching Faith. 

Now the relation between the disciples and their 
Divine Master was like that between children and 
their parents in this among other things, that it was 
a relation rather of sight than of faith; or-at least of 
faith which was wrapped up in sight, and which had 
not as yet unfolded itself into distinct consciousness. 
‘ The faith they had hitherto been called upon to ex- 
ercise, was not a faith in One who was absent, but in 
One who was always by their side, whom they saw 


34. THE EXPEDIENCY 


with their eyes, and heard with their ears, and who was 
daily working visible wonders before them. Hence, 
their faith having never been trained to see Him 
when He was absent, and to trust in Him when He 
was far off, it failed, as soon as they were out of His 
sight. When He was upon the mount, they were 
unable, through their unbelief, to heal the boy who 
was possessed by the evil spirit, When He was 
_ asleep, they were afraid lest the sea should swallow 
them up. And though they fancied that they loved 
Him above all things, though they fancied that 
nothing could ever lure or drive them away from 
Him, that they could brave every danger, and bear 
every suffering, rather than forsake Him, yet, no 
sooner did the soldiers lay hold on Him, than they 
fled. Such was the weakness of their fancied 
strength : having never been tried, at the first trial it 
gave way. Moreover their relation to their Lord 
was like that between children and their parents in 
this also, that, as they had ever found a ready, pre- 
sent help in Him for all their wants, He stood in the 
_ place of God to them, as a father stands to his child. 
\ It is true, He also was God. This however they 
| knew not. They did not regard Him as God, but 
much more as a man, like, though far superior in 
power and wisdom, to themselves. Hence, as it is 
expedient that a child should rise from a visible to 
an invisible Object of Faith, and that his obedience 
to an earthly should be transfigured into obedience 
to a Heavenly Father, so was it expedient that the 
love and reverence which the disciples felt for their 
earthly Lord, should be transfigured into love and 
reverence for a Heavenly Lord, — for the same Lord, 


OF CHRIST’S DEPARTURE. 30 


not for a different. For the Comforter was to testify 
of Jesus, was to bring all things to their remembrance 
whatsoever Jesus had said to them, was to glorify 
Jesus, was to receive and show them the things of 
Jesus. Still, though, when Jesus departed from 
them, they were not to go to a different Master, — 
though He who had been their Master hitherto was 
to continue their only Master unto the end, — yet to 
them, in their eyes, He was to be different. He was 
no longer to be Jesus of Nazareth, but Christ, the 
Eternal Son of God. ? 

I have been likening the change, which befell the 
disciples when their Lord was taken from them, to 
that which happens when a child passes from under 
the government and control of its parents to the 
exercise of self-government and self-control. This 
comparison, it seems to me, may help us materially 
in understanding how it was possible for that change 
to be expedient for them, and by what process it 
was to become so. Therefore we will dwell a little 
longer upon it, more especially as it will give rise to. 
some considerations bearing closely on our position 
in this place. In the case of the disciples the change 
was sudden and rapid, and was completed at once. 
Tn the common journey of life on the other hand, we 
all know, the transition is very gradual. Years roll 
over our heads while it is going on; and there are 
several stages in its progress. Such is God’s gra- 
cious plan for fostering and maturing the growth of 
His reasonable creatures. Such is the care with 
which he has girt us round. “ Parents first season 
us: then Schoolmasters Deliver us to Laws.” These 
several stages however are not, — at least they ought 


36 THE EXPEDIENCY 


not to be, removals into a different region of life. 
They ought not to be cut off one from another. 
Rather should each succeeding state be an expan- 
sion of that which went before, even as the bud 
expands into the blossom, and as the blossom, after 
shedding its robe of beauty, expands into the fruit. 
At each step indeed we meet with sundry tempta- 
tions to reject and look back with scorn on the past. 
Our vanity prompts us to do so, being flattered by 
the thought of our having recently achieved an 
emancipation from a moral and intellectual bondage, 
to which, through our feebleness and helplessness, 
we had been compelled to submit. The charms of 
novelty, the fascination of the present moment, of 
our present thoughts, of our present feelings, of our 
present circumstances, which acts almost overpower- 
ingly upon weak minds, to the extinction both of the 
past and the future, would make us give ourselves 
up to that moment altogether. Yet the only way 
in which we can make head against the crushing 
tyranny of the present, is by holding firmly to the 
past, to that which was living and permanent in it, 
merely casting away what was outward and acci- 
dental. That which has been the good spirit of the 
past, should abide with us as a cuardian angel 
through life, manifesting itself more and more clearly 
to the soul, as we rise from one step to another. 
Then alone will every change be expedient. 

The first momentous change in a boy’s life is that 
when he passes from under his father’s roof to school. 
This is expedient and fitting in his case, in order 
that he may be trained betimes for the habits and 
duties, the energy and the endurance of active life, 


- 


OF CHRIST’S DEPARTURE. OL 


and in order that he may learn to look upon himself, 
not merely as a member of a family, but as bound 
by manifold ties to his fellow men; so that the idea 
of a State, and of himself as a member of the State, 
may gradually rise up within him ; while the instruc- 
tion he receives teaches him to connect himself in 
thought with all past generations, and to view him- 
self as a member of the human race, linked by innu- 
merable ties of obligation to those who have gone 
before him, and bound to repay that obligation by 
laboring for his own age, and for those who shall 
come after him. In the other sex, whose duties 
through life are to be mainly domestic, and who are 
not designed to take part in political or professional 
activity, such a separation from home is not desir- 
able, unless under peculiar circumstances. But for 
the healthy and manly development of a boy’s cha- 
racter, in a rightful sympathy with the nation he 
belongs to, it seems to be almost indispensable, so 
that nothing short of a singular felicity of circum- 
stances can make amends for it; not indeed unac- 
companied with danger and difficulty, but for this 
very reason necessary, as the training of Winter is 
to a-sapling, which is to grow into a noble tree, and 
to stand the blasts of centuries. Although however 
itis expedient for the boy to pass from his father’s 
house to school, are not the feelings and thoughts, 
the affections and principles, which animated and 
guided him when at home, still to animate and 
guide him at school? Most pitiable would his lot 
be, if they did not. He would have no affection, no. 
reverence. His affection for his schoolfellows can 
only be a transfer of a portion of that which he has. 


4 


38 THE EXPEDIENCY 


learned to feel for his brothers; his reverence for his 
master, a transfer of a portion of that which he feels 
for his parents. And woe to him, if he does not 
cherish that reverence, which many things will tend 
to impair and destroy! One part of his life at school, 
that which lies in his intercourse with his master, 
will be altogether unprofitable to him and lost, nay, 
will be hurtful, unfitting his soul for being a habita- 
tion of reverent feelings through life. And still more 
certain woe to him, if the impressions of his new 
companions efface those of his home! ‘Then, and 
through his whole life, should the image of his 
parents and brethren be enshrined in the sanctuary 
of his heart. Woe to him, also, if he forgets the | 
principles which he imbibed at his mother’s knees! ~ 
If he clings to those principles, he may maintain a ie 
steady course amid the temptations which will beset a 
him. Else he will drift along, like a fallen leaf, the 
sport of every casual impulse, a moral and spiritual 
vagrant. 

The next stage in the progressive unfolding of the 
character, at least for the higher classes, according to 
the institutions of modern Europe, is, we all know, 
when the boy comes forth from the strict discipline 
and control of school, to complete that education 
‘which is to fit him for the duties and struggles of 
active life, in some place of study resembling this 
University. This is the stage, which you, my young 
friends, have now reached. You have quitted the 
constant discipline of school, and that course of 
study every part of which was prescribed to you by 
your master; and you have entered on a freer mode 
of life: you are left more to your own judgment in 


OF CHRIST’S DEPARTURE. 39 


the regulation both of your studies and of your con- 
duct. And this change also has been expedient for 
you. On this point perhaps you would all readily 
agree with me: at least you would allow and main- 
tain that the change has been a pleasant one. Possi- 
bly however the reason why you think the change a 
pleasant one, may not be exactly the reason why it is 
expedient for you to go through it. Nay, your rea- 
son for deeming it pleasant might rather, if we take 
a Christian point of view, be a reason for deeming it 
inexpedient; so far namely as that reason comes into 
play. For why are you glad of the change? May 
I not say, to express the reason in a word, you are 
glad, because it made you your own masters? Now 
this would indeed be a worthy reason for rejoicing, if 
you had truly become your own masters, —if you 
had acquired a greater dominion over your thoughts 
and feelings and actions, —if those portions of, your 
nature, which ought to exercise supremacy over the 
rest, those powers which, as belonging to the divine 
image within you, constitute your real selves, your 
Reason and your Conscience, were become the lords 
of your being. But if your ground for rejoicing is, 
that you have acquired greater facilities for indulging 
an unreasoning and unreasonable will, for pampering 
every craving appetite, and following every wayward 
desire, then, so far as this has been the effect of the 
change, assuredly it has been any thing but expedient. 
It has been necessary: it has been inevitable: but 
the very circumstances in your situation which you 
would select as motives for rejoicing, are those which 
you are especially called to contend against and sub- 
due. Nor would you, by such a change, have be- 


AO THE EXPEDIENCY 


come your own masters, but your own slaves. It 
would have overthrown the legitimate, monarchal 
constitution of your being, to set up the ochlocracy 
within you in its stead. This however is the blessed 
advantage afforded you by the institutions of this 
place, that here you have many helps and encour- 
agements to train you for the exercise of self-govern- 
ment,—that you have the guardian guidance and 
watchful superintendence of persons of greater wis- 
dom and experience, anxious to steady you in the 
paths of good, and to preserve or call you back from 
evil,—and that the whole system of our daily life, 
while it allows you a certain degree of liberty, im- 
poses a certain degree of salutary restraint. I am 
aware, there is much in the habits and spirit of the 
age, and of your rank in society,—and you will 
probably find much in some of your companions, — 
which has an opposite tendency, and holds out per- 
nicious temptations to laxity and self-indulgence. But 
so much the more does it behove you to cleave with 
grateful and dutiful reverence to those protecting 
institutions and to that guardian authority, which 
God has mercifully appointed to uphold your frail 
strength at this critical season of your lives. Indeed 
this is the peculiar advantage which our universities 
have over those in other countries, that they form a 
regular step in the progressive development of free- 
dom, a medium between the constraint of boyhood 
at school and the absolute unconstraint of manhood 
in the world. You are here in a sheltered creek, in 
which you may practise yourselves in a boat of your 
own, before you launch out into the broad sea of life. 
But the greater your advantages and privileges may 


OF CHRIST’S DEPARTURE. Al 


be, the greater also is your responsibility. The 
orderly and obedient habits, which you learnt at 
home in your childhood from the necessities and 
instincts of nature, and which were imposed upon 
you at school by the authority of your master, you 
should here impose upon yourselves. This is of no 
little importance, even with regard td your studies, 
If you would render them profitable, they should be 
orderly, steadily pursued, and in a determinate course ; 
which in this atomic age of literature is more diffi- 
cult than ever before. But important as discipline is 
for a strong and sound growth of the intellect, it is 
still more important for that moral health and strength, 
whereby you may be enabled to stand hereafter amid 
the assailing temptations and tumult of the world. 
As the lessons in the various rudiments of knowl- 
edge, which you have learnt in former years, have 
become a substantial part of your minds, and shape 
and mould your thoughts, without any special act of 
reflection or volition, and often without any conscious- 
ness, so should your moral habits be in like manner 
amalgamated with your moral nature, and should 
unconsciously regulate and determine your conduct 
on every, even the slightest occasion. ‘Thus would 
the child indeed be “father of the man:” and this 
would be the true discipline and preparation for free- 
dom; which none can enjoy outwardly, except he 
who has it in himself; and which consists in the 
orderly, harmonious, unchecked, unconstrained move- 
ment of the heart and soul and mind in the path 
marked out for them by God. 

We have been looking at several instances, in 
which the changes, occurring in the ordinary course 

* 


42 THE EXPEDIENCY 


of our lives, are in some measure analogous to that 
which befell the Apostles when our Lord departed 
from their sight. In each we have seen that the feel- 
ings and rules, which at first are impressed upon us 
by present objects, are designed to become living ele- 
ments and principles in our hearts and minds; and 
that, when a sufficient time has elapsed for the in- 
ward principle to gain some degree of strength, the 
outward authority, which imposed and enforced the 
rule, is taken away. ‘Thus far therefore, with a view 
to this end, it is expedient, abstractly, that these 
changes should come to pass. Nevertheless in very 
many cases, we must make the sad acknowledgment, 
they do not prove expedient in fact. That which, 
according to the divine purpose manifested in our in- 
stitutions, was intended for our good, does not pro- 
duce the good it was meant to produce. And why 
does it fail? It was expedient for the Apostles that 
Jesus should depart from them, to the end that what 
they had hitherto regarded with more or less of a 
carnal eye, should become a living spiritual presence 
and power in their souls. But how was this effect to 
be wrought? Was our Lord’s departure to produce 
it? ‘The very thought of their loss cast them down, 
and filled them with sorrow and dismay; and when 
they had been separated. from Him before, they had 
been taught the lesson of their own weakness. Even 
after His Resurrection, although they had seen that 
wonderful proof that the way to power and glory 
passes through suffering and self-sacrifice, — although 
our Lord Himself had expounded the Scriptures to 
them, and shown them how this had been determined 
and revealed from the beginning, — and although He 


OF CHRIST’S DEPARTURE. A3 


had breathed the Holy Ghost into them, and declared 
at the same time that the Kingdom which He had 
come from the Father to establish, and which He 
now sent them to establish, was one the great ordi- 
nance of which was to lie in the remission of sins, 
and which was only to be spread thereby, — still 
these things do not seem to have accomplished any 
decisive alteration in the frame and temper of their 
spirits. On the day when our Lord was taken up 
into heaven, they had not ceased to look for the 
restoration of the visible kingdom of Israel. Norcan 
we in the least conceive that the change was to be 
brought about by any act of their own will, or by 
any process of their own understanding. Jor it was 
their will and their understanding that required to be 
changed and enlarged and set free: and so far were 
they from being able to effect this work by themselves, 
that they had withstood every attempt to effect it, 
and had continued blind beneath the light of those 
blessed words, which have since opened the eyes of 
mankind. Assuredly, if the disciples had been leit 
to themselves, our Lord’s departure would not have 
been expedient for them. Rather would it have been 
like the departure of the living soul, after which the 
body is motionless and powerless, and decay and dis- 
solution soon commence. The reason, our Lord tells 
the disciples, why it was expedient for them that He 
should go away, was, that, when He was gone, He 
would send the Comforter to them; He would send 
them the Holy Spirit of God, who would bring back 
to their remembrance whatever He had said to them, 
and would lead them to the whole truth (s). For 
this reason, and for this alone, His departure was ex- 


2 


NL 


Ad THE EXPEDIENCY 


pedient, which otherwise would have been the great- 
est of calamities. 

Hence, my friends, we may perceive the reason 
why the changes in the course of our ordinary life, 
although designed and fitted to be expedient, are so 
often the contrary. ‘The removal of the boy to 
school, of the youth to the university, will not be 
beneficial, but very injurious, unless the things which 
he had heard before are brought to his remembrance 
and dwell in him; unless, when the rule, and the au- 
thority which enforced it, are taken away from over 
his head, the principle, which was the spirit of that 
rule, comes forth as a living law in his heart. - No 
institutions and ordinances, however wise the end 
contemplated in them, and however judiciously they 
may be adapted as preparatives to that end, will 
work any good of themselves. ‘They are only means 
whereby the Spirit of God works good in those who 
yield their hearts and wills to them. Great and pre- 
clous as are the benefits which the institutions of this 
place are designed and fitted to bestow, you will lose 
the most precious part of these benefits, the part 
which would be the most lastingly salutary to your 
character, unless you look upon them as a gift of 
God, as an ordinance of God, —as one of the means 
whereby the Spirit of God would bring back to your 
remembrance the truths which you were taught in 
your childhood,—as one of the steps whereby He 
would gradually lead you to the whole truth. 

Through His mighty operation, we know, it was 
soon proved that in this, as in all other things, Jesus 
did indeed tell His disciples the truth, and that it was 
most expedient for them that He should go away. 


OF CHRIST’S DEPARTURE. A5 


The Book of Acts is the proof that it was so; and 
no proof was ever completer. Terrible as the blow 
was, overwhelming and irreparable as the loss could 
not but seem to the natural eye, that very loss was 
soon tured by the power of the Spirit into their 
endless and inestimable gain. The Master, whom 
they had lost, they found anew. But they found 
Him, not as a mere man, with the infirmities of the 
flesh, having no form or comeliness, to make men de- 
sire Him. They found Him as God, as the Eternal, 
Onlybegotten Son of God, sitting at the right hand 
of the Father, governing all things with the power of 
the Father, and at the same time as their Saviour 
and Redeemer, and as the Redeemer of all mankind. 
They found Him, whom the Jews had crucified, made 
by God both Lord and Christ (c). Greatly too as 
their Master was changed and glorified in their eyes, 
scarcely less great was the change which took place 
in their own hearts and souls, in the bent and strength 
of their characters, and in all their feelings and de- 
sires, when the promised Comforter had come to 
them. ‘The fiery baptism of the day of Pentecost 
consumed and purged away the dross and weak- 
nesses of their nature; and they came out as silver 
refined and purified seven times by the fire. Out of 
fearfulness, they were made bold: out of blindness, 
they were enabled to see. Instead of being fright- 
ened, and shrinking and hiding themselves, they now 
came forward in the eye of day, and openly preached 
Him whom the Jews had crucified: and they re- 
joiced with exceeding joy that they were counted 
worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus. 

Therefore was it expedient for the disciples that 


A6 THE EXPEDIENCY 


Jesus should go away from them. And as it was_ 
expedient for them, so through them has it been for 
mankind, and in divers ways. Foy as, by the coming 
of the Comforter, the Apostles were led to the whole 
truth, hereby they were enabled to lay up those trea- 
sures of truth, which have been the riches of all sub- 
sequent generations. Through the coming of the 
Comforter were they seated on their thrones, where 
they have been the examples, the teachers, the guides 
of the Church for all ages(p). Nay, if Jesus had 
not gone away from them, we see not how the Gen- 
tiles would have been called into the Church. So 
long as He remained upon earth, the earnest desire 
of His disciples must needs have been to abide con- 
tinually within hearing of His blessed words. At 
the utmost they would have gone forth from Him 
for a brief while, to return anon into His presence; 
and thus their preaching would have been confined, 
as it was during His life, to Judea. Not till He was 
taken away from them, did they learn to feel that He 
was with them, not merely in Judea, but in every 
part of the world. So long as He was living upon 
earth, He might give light to the country round, like 
a beacon upon a hill. But it was only from His sun- 
like throne in the heavens, that He could pour light 
over every quarter of the globe. It was only from 
thence that His voice could go forth throughout all 
the earth, and His words to the end of the world. It 
was only when He was lifted up, that He could draw 
all men to His feet. Then alone could the founda- 
tions of His Church be laid so deep and wide, that 
all nations could be gathered into it (#). 

Thus there are several arguments, which, even 


-_- 


OF CHRIST’S DEPARTURE. A7 


when we are judging by the light of our own under- 
standing, guided by the analogies of human life, and 
by the events which actually ensued, may satisfy us 
that it was indeed expedient for the disciples that 
Christ should go away from them. It was expe- 
dient for them, because it is expedient that men’s 
hearts should be trained and disciplined by hard- 
ships and sufferings and afflictions; because it is 
expedient that they should learn to live by faith in 
Him who is unseen (Fr); because moreover it was 
expedient, in order to their fulfilling the counsel of 
God, and spreading the glory of his salvation, that 
they should not be confined to a single country, but 
should go abroad among the nations, branching, 
like the river which flowed out of Paradise, and 
compassing all lands. Thus much we may easily 
discern. We can discern too that the power, 
whereby the great loss sustained by the Apostles 
was tured into their greater gain, did not lie in 
themselves, but came to them from a_ higher 
source, even from the Comforter whom Jesus sent 
to them. ‘Through the working of that Comforter, 
the manifold afflictions, which would otherwise 
have stunned and crushed them, became the means 
of purifying and elevating their hearts. Through 
the working of that Comforter, they lived thence- 
forward a higher life, by faith in Him, whom they 
had seen with their eyes, whom they had looked 
upon, and their hands had handled, and whom they 
now knew to have sat down at the right hand of 
God. Through the working of that Comforter, they 
received boldness and wisdom to go forth over the 
earth, preaching with tongues of fire, kindling the 


AS THE EXPEDIENCY 


hearts of the nations, confounding the wise and the 
mighty, and bringing to nought whatever was then 
established on the thrones of power and knowledge. 
But our Lerd’s words are, For, if Igo not away, 
the Comforter will not come to you; but, if L depart, 
Twill send Him to you. In these words there is a 
depth of meaning far beyond what we have yet 
attained to: but they are words which we must not - 
approach, except with humble and reverent awe, 
taking off the shoes in which we are wont to walk 
along the highways and byways of human thought. 
For they relate to the mysteries hidden in the bosom 
of the Godhead, to the part which the several Per- 
* sons in the ever-blessed ‘Trinity bear in the gracious 
work of our Redemption. From other passages of 
Scripture, as well as from the text, we learn that the 
gift of the Holy Ghost was connected in some mys- 
terlous manner with the completion of Christ’s work 
upon earth. Thus St. John, in a former chapter, 
(vii. 39,) says, with reference to the promise that the 
Spirit should be, given to such as believe in Christ, 
the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because Jesus was 
not yet glorified: which agrees exactly with what 
4 we read in our text, that, if Jesus had not gone 
away, the Comforter would not have come. If we 
endeavor to understand the whole process of our 
‘ Redemption, so far as it is set forth in Scripture, it 
would seem to have been ordained in the eternal 
counsels of God, manifested as they are, and must 
needs be, to us under an order of succession, that 
the sacrifice of Christ should be offered up,— that 
the full victory over sin, under every form of assail- 
ing temptation, should be gained by Christ in behalf, 


~ 


OF CHRIST’S DEPARTURE. AY 


and as the Head and Representative, of all man- 
kind, — before those special gifts of the Holy Ghost, 
which were to be the glory and the blessing of the 
New Dispensation, were poured out of the treasury 
of heaven. Such appears to have been the order 
appointed in the counsels of God: for such was the 
order in which the events took place. Such too 
was the order of the prophetic announcement. The 
Messiah was to go up on high, and to lead captivity 
captive, and then to receive gifts for men, that the 
Lord God should dwell among them. Accordingly, 
when the fulfilment was come, St. Peter, in his ser- 
mon, declared that Jesus, being exalted by the right 
hand of God, and having received the promise of the 
Holy Ghost from the Father, had shed forth what the 
people on the day of Pentecost saw and heard. 
Moreover we find, in the verses immediately after 
the text, that a main part of the lessons which the 
Comforter was to teach, related to facts which did 
not receive their full accomplishment, until our Lord 
ascended into heaven. Indeed the great purpose of 
the mission of the Comforter, it would appear from . 
those verses, was to declare the whole scheme of 
salvation to mankind, to reveal it in all its fulness to. 
their understandings, and to graft this knowledge as. 
a living, sanctifying reality in their hearts; so that, 
were it only on this account, the completion of 
Christ’s work would be an indispensable preliminary 
to the mission of the Paraclete, who throughout this. 
passage is spoken of as proceeding, not from the 
Father only, but from the Father and the Son (@). 
Many gifts of the Holy Ghost had indeed been 
already bestowed on man, even under the old Cove- 


3) 


50 THE EXPEDIENCY 


nant; above all, the gift of prophecy, whereby holy 
men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy 
Ghost (2 Pet. i. 21). So too it was declared of John 
the Baptist, that he should be filled with the Holy 
Ghost even from his mother’s womb. And our 
Saviour Himself, in one of the passages above re- 
ferred to, says to the disciples, L will pray to the 
Father; and He will give you another Comforter, 
that He may abide with you forever, even the Spirit 
of Truth; whom the world cannot receive, because i 
seeth Him not, nor knoweth Him: but ye know Him; 
for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. ‘The 
disciples are here told that they already knew the 
Comforter. He was already dwelling with them; 
for they had already received several gifts, which 
none can receive except from the Holy Ghost. But 
the gifts they had hitherto received, like the gifts 
which had proceeded from Him during the earlier 
dispensation, were in the main external, such as the 
power of working miracles (u). The higher gifts of 
\ the Holy Ghost, — that transforming power of faith, 
“\ which nothing can awaken except a lively insight 
\ into the sacrifice and mediation of the Saviour, — 

and those spiritual graces whereby the life of Christ 
is fashioned in our souls,—had not yet been vouch- 
safed to them. The Holy Ghost from that time 
forward was to come down, as he came down at 
the baptism of Jesus, like a dove, and to abide upon 
the souls of those who believe in Christ. He was | 
to come to them, and to dwell in them, converting 
their earthly tabernacles into living temples of 

God (1). 
At all events such is the order in which the work 


OF CHRIST’S DEPARTURE. ol 


of our regeneration must now take place. We must 
be buried by baptism into the death of Christ, before 
we can rise again in newness of life. We must be 
justified through faith in the death of Christ, before 
we can be sanctified by the indwelling of His Spirit. 
The Spirit of sanctification is only given to those 
who have already been washed from their sins in the 
all-purifying blood of the Lamb. 

Hence even at this day there are many, for whom 
it is expedient that Jesus should go away from them, 
and for the selfsame reason for which it was expe- 
dient that He should go away from His disciples. 
Perhaps I might say that even at this day there is 
no one for whom this is not expedient, or at least 
for whom it has not been so at some period of his 
life. For we are all of us, even those who have 
been brought up with the greatest wisdom, and the 
most diligent culture of their religious affections, far 
too apt to look at Jesus Christ in the first instance, 
in the same light in which the disciples mostly 
looked upon Him, while He was with them in the 
body, as a man like ourselves, a perfect man indeed, 
but still a mere man, who came to teach us about 
God, and the things of heaven, and the way of 
attaining to them, and to leave us an example, that 
we might follow his steps. We read the story of 
His life in the Gospels; and even our natural hearts 
are struck and charmed by the surpassing beauty of 
His character, by His purity, His meekness, His 
patience, His wisdom, His unweariable, self-forget- 
ting activity in every work of love. In our better 
and more serious moments, when the Bible is in our 
hands, or when we have been stirred by some elo- 


Sy THE EXPEDIENCY 


quent picture of the graces manifested in His life, 
we wish to be like Him, to do as He did, to obey 
His commandments, at least a part of them, the part 
which requires the least self-sacrifice and self-denial. 
All the time indeed we may be in the habit of 
acknowledging with our lips that Christ is God, not 
merely in the public profession of the Creed, but 
whenever our conversation turns upon religion, and 
whenever we bring the question distinctly before our 
minds. Yet we scarcely think of Him as God. 
We litile think what that acknowledgment means 
or implies. Our thoughts are solely fixed on the 
excellence of His human character: and inasmuch 
as we admire Him, and wish to be like Him, we 
fancy we may take rank among His true disciples. 
Nay, we even begin to fancy that we have some- 
thing in common with Him, that our admiration 
renders us like Him. ‘Thus we glorify human 
nature for Christ’s sake; and we glorify ourselves 
as sharing the same nature with Christ. Meanwhile 
we think little of his death, except on account of the 
virtues which He manifested before His judges and 
on the cross. Now he who thinks of Christ in this 
manner, if he happens by nature to be of a kindly 


disposition, may at all times really try to imitate 


Him, even as he might try to imitate any other good 
or great man in history. At times, when brought 
more immediately and consciously into Christ’s 
presence, by hearing or reading about Him, such 
persons may be. kindled to a longing, and even to 
an effort, to resemble Him. There are many such 
persons in the world: there are many assuredly in 
this congregation. Among the young, especially in 


ae 


as SA 


OF CHRIST’S DEPARTURE. a3 


the educated classes, this, or something like it, is the 
ordinary state of feeling with regard to the Saviour. 
Yes, my young friends, I feel confident that there 
are many, very many amongst you, who think of 
our blessed Lord after this fashion, who admire and 
revere and love the peerless graces of His character, 
who would rejoice at times to enrich your own 
character with a portion of those graces, but who 
have no lively consciousness that Christ is your 
God, that He is your Saviour, that He died for your 
sins to bring you to God,—who do not feel that 
you need His help, who never seek to enter into a 
living communion with Him, nay, who have no 
conception what can be meant by such a com- 
munion. Accustomed as you are to contemplate 
the noblest and fairest examples of humanity, that 
History and Poetry have set up for the admiration 
of mankind, — accustomed to meditate on the bright- 
est intuitions wherewith Philosophy has solaced her 
journey through the wilderness of logical specula- 
tion, — you are wont to think of the virtues exhibited 
in the life of Jesus of Nazareth, as of the same kind, 
only superior in degree, purer and more perfect. 
Now this fair ideal of excellent humanity may 
indeed be a blessing to you for a time, a light to 
your understandings, and a joy to your hearts, — as 
the contemplation of all virtue, of whatsoever is 
lovely and noble, will ever be to a genial and gener- 
ous spirit. "Were you living in a happy island, in 
an Elysium, where sin was not, and did not cast her 
shadow, Death, — were there no evil spirit lurking 
in your own hearts, and ever and anon rising and 
shaking himself, and shattering the brittle crust with 
ine 


54. THE EXPEDIENCY 


which amiable feelings and conventional morality 
may have covered them over, — were there no herd 
of evil spirits howling and prowling on every side: 
around you, tearing the vitals of society, mangling 
every soul they can seize, while others more craftily 
put on the mask of pleasure and gain and honor, 
and use every art in fawning on our self-love, —in a 
word, had you no immortal souls slumbering beneath 
the painted sepulchre of mortality, were you not made 
in the image of God, and fallen from that image, 
were you the mere insects of time,—then indeed it 
might be sufficient for you to bask in the light of an 
earthly sun. But the light of that sun will pass 
away from you: the vapors of sin will hide it from 
your sight: the glaring lights of the world will draw 
you afar from it: and ere long you will find a night 
of thick, impenetrable darkness spread over you and 
around you, unless you have a living faith in the 
Sun of Righteousness, whom neither light nor dark- 
ness can conceal, and who shines all the brighter 
npon the soul when every thing else seems cheerless 
and hopeless. 

Foy all such persons as have no other knowledge 
of Christ, no other faith in Him, than that which I 
have just been describing, it is most expedient that 
Jesus should go away from them. It is expedient for 
them that the man Jesus, the fair ideal which they 
have formed of perfect wisdom and virtue, which has 
shone as an example before them, and which they 
have fancied themselves able to follow, should pass 
away from their minds, — that they should feel its in- 
adequateness to strengthen what is weak in them, 
and to supply what is wanting,—-in order that, by 


OF CHRIST’S DEPARTURE. 50 


the teaching of the Spirit, opening their eyes to be- 
hold their own wants and those of all mankind, they 
may be led to seek Jesus and to find Him, no longer 
as a mere J'eacher and Example, but transfigured © 
into their God and Saviour and Redeemer. It is ex- 
pedient for them that some great calamity, be it what 
it may, —some crack, through which they may look 
into their own souls, and into the soul of the world, — 
should befall them, —if so be they may learn thereby 
that no human virtue can uphold them, no human 
wisdom comfort them, and may thus be brought to 
seek a Divine Saviour and a Divine Comforter (s). 
So long as they regard Jesus, whether consciously or 
unconsciously, as a mere man, they will fancy that 
something approaching at least to His excellence will 
be attainable by man. Hence they will be content 
to walk by their own light, to lean on their own arm, 
to trust in their own strength; and they will not open 
their hearts to receive the true comfort of the Holy 
Ghost. We must feel our need of a Comforter, as 
the Apostles did when bereft of their Lord, before 
the Comforter Himself can be a Comforter to us. 
We must be brought to acknowledge our weakness, 
our helplessness, our sinfulness, — not merely our 
own personally, which, if others have surmounted 
theirs, might also be surmounted by us, — but that of 
our nature, of our whole fallen race, which, as such, 
we shall understand to be irremediable by any exer- 
tions of our own, — before we can pray earnestly for 
strength and help and purity from above. That is to 
say, we must lose Christ as a man, to regain Him as 
God. We must turn from His life to His death, and 
to the meaning and purpose of that death, not merely 


ob THE EXPEDIENCY OF CHRIST’S DEPARTURE. 


as exhibiting the consummation of human patience 
and meekness, but as fore-ordained by God from the 
beginning to be the central act in the history of man- 
kind. We must learn to know and feel how that 
death was borne for our sakes, and for the sake of all 
mankind, to deliver us from the bondage of sin, to 
bring us out of the dark dungeon of our carnal, sel- 
fish nature, into the light and joy and peace and love, 
which flow forever from the face of God. We must 
learn to perceive how totally different Jesus, even in 
His human nature, as the Son of Man, was from all 
the rest of mankind; how He alone was pure and 
holy and without sin; how in Him alone the fulness 
of the Godhead dwelt. In a word, we must seek 
through faith to be justified by the blood of Christ, 
and, casting off all pretensions to any righteousness 
_of our own, to put on His perfect righteousness : and 
then the Spirit of God, the Comforter, who is the 
Spirit of Truth, will come and dwell in our hearts, 
and purify and sanctify them, so that they shall be- 
come living temples of God. 


SERMON Il. 


THE CONVICTION OF SIN. 


WHEN THE COMFORTER IS COME, HE WILL CONVINCE THE WORLD OF 
SIN, AND OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND OF JUDGMENT; OF SIN, BECAUSE 
THEY BELIEVE NOT IN ME. — John xvi. 8, 9. 


In my former sermon I began to speak to you con- 
cerning the mission of the Comforter, whom our 
Lord, on the evening before His crucifixion, promised 
to send to His disciples, and whose coming was to 
be so great a blessing, that it was for their advantage 
that He should leave them, in order that the Com- 
forter might come to them in His stead. We con- 
sidered how it was possible that this should be; and 
we found that, according to the divinely-constituted 
order of human life, it is wisely and beneficently ap- 
pointed that the outward helps and supports, by 
which in the first instance we are guided and upheld, 
should be taken away from us one by one, to the 
end that we may learn to live more and more by 
faith in that which is invisible, trusting and leaning, 
not on our own strength of understanding or of will, 
but on the wisdom and power of the Spirit of God. 
We then endeavored to discern, so far as we may by 
the light of Scripture, how and why, according to the 


08 THE CONVICTION OF SIN. 


counsel of God, the sending of the Spirit was or- 
dained to be consequent upon the departure of the 
Son, so that the Son should return to His heavenly 
throne at the right hand of the Father, before the 
Holy Ghost came down in that special, more abun- 
dant outpouring, which was to be the power and the 
glory of the Christian dispensation. And we were 
led in conclusion to mark how the same evangelical 
order still prevails in the spiritual life of individuals, 
how we are still over-apt in the first instance to fix 
our thoughts on the mere humanity of our Lord, and 
how in such cases it is still expedient and necessary 
that we should lose the Man Jesus, so that we may 
be led by the Spirit to acknowledge and worship 
Christ, the living God. As it is necessary that the 
trust in human righteousness, in human virtue, in 
human strength, not merely in our own, but in that 
of our whole fallen race, should be stripped from the 
soul, before it can be clothed anew in the divine 
righteousness of Christ, and as no man is sancti- 
fied by the Spirit of Christ, until he has been justi- 
fied by the righteousness of Christ, — in like manner 
it was the will of God that Christ should die for our 
sins, should rise again for our justification, and should 
go up into heaven, before our souls could be lifted up 
by His Spirit from earthly things to heavenly, and 
enabled to enter with Him into the presence of the 
Almighty Father. 

Thus do all the Persons of the Ever-blessed Trinity 
vouchsafe to take part in the gracious and glorious 
work of our Salvation. The Father sent the Son to 
die for us. The Son became Incarnate in the Form 
of a Man, to deliver man from his sins, and to bring 


THE CONVICTION OF SIN. | oY 


him to God. He, the Firstborn of the whole Crea- 
tion, became the Firstborn of His Church, and went 
up into heaven to be the Head and Ruler of that 
Church: and to that Church He, in the unity of the 
Father, gave, and evermore gives His Spirit, to be ~ 
the Source of her life and power, of her faith and 
wisdom and holiness. Upon that Church the Spirit 
‘bestows all the graces of the Kingdom of Heaven, 
sanctifying that blessed Communion of the Faithful, 
who have found the forgiveness of their sins through 
the Atoning Sacrifice of the Saviour. But the Spirit, 
is not merely the Spirit of Holiness to those who are 
in the Church: He is also the Spirit of Power, ’ 
whereby the Church is strengthened for her warfare 
against the world: and only through the help of the 
Spirit has the Church been enabled to carry on that 
warfare, and to bring the world to the obedience of 
faith. Indeed it is only through the power of the 
Spirit, that the power of the world has been over- 
come in any single soul. It is only through the 
working of the Spirit, that any one has ever been 
brought to the knowledge of Christ as his Saviour. 
As none can come to the Father except through the 
Son, so none can own in his heart that Jesus Christ 
is God, except through the conviction wrought in him 
by the Spirit of God, the Comforter. 

‘he manner in which this conviction was and still 
is to be wrought, and the several steps in the process 
by which the Gospel was to confute the wisdom and 
to cast down the pride of the world, are declared by 
our Lord in the verses which follow immediately 
after His promise, that, when He had departed, He 
would send the Comforter to His disciples. And 


60 THE CONVICTION OF SIN. 


when He is come, He will convince the world of Sin, 
and of Righteousness, and of Judgment; of Sin, be- 
cause they believe not in Me; of Righteousness, be- 
cause Igo to My Father, and ye see Me no more; of 
Judgment, because the Prince of this world is judged. 
These words are not indeed designed to set forth the 
whole working of the Spirit in the Church. They do 


not speak of the.gifts which are bestowed on all’ 


such as come in sincerity of heart to Christ. ‘They 
do not speak of that holiness, which is the peculiar 
gift of the Spirit of Holiness. They do not speak of 
those excellent fruits of the Spirit, which are enu- 
merated by St. Paul,—of that love and joy and 
peace and longsuffering and gentleness and kindness 
and good faith and meekness and temperance, which 
are the sure growth of all such trees as are planted 
by the Spirit of God. Our Lord is speaking mainly 
with reference to the help which the disciples were to 
receive from the Comforter in their warfare against 
the world. Having told them of the violent opposi- 
tion and persecution they would have to encounter, 
He goes on to tell them of the assistance they were 
to receive from the Paraclete, who was to be their 
Comforter, their Advocate, their Patron and Guar- 
dian and Protector (x), who was to speak through 
their mouths, and with whose living sword they were 
to conquer the world, as the commanders of the great 
army of faith: When He is come, He will convince 
the world of Sin, and of Righteousness, and of Judg- 
ment. Thus these words declare the threefold opera- 
tion by which the Church was to subdue the world, 
to cast down the strongholds of its enmity to God, 
and to prepare it for receiving the adoption of grace. 


— 2 er 


= 


THE CONVICTION OF SIN. 61 


But inasmuch as we are all born in the world,— 
inasmuch as by nature we all have that carnal heart, 
which is enmity against God, which needs to be sub- 
dued in every one of us, and which, even when sub- 
dued, is never wholly eradicated, — hence the warfare 
of the Church against the world was not to be tran- 
sient, but permanent, was not-to be carried on merely 
against those who lie beyond her limits, but was to 
be waging perpetually, more or less, against the spirit 
of the world in the hearts of all her members. Nor 
has any man ever been brought to a thorough recep- 
tion of the grace of the Gospel, until he has been 
convinced of Sin and of Righteousness and of Judg- 
ment by the Spirit of God. Nay, so long as thet 
world retains any hold on our hearts, so long as there 
is any evil root of carnal-mindedness in them, so long 
do we need the aid of the Spirit, to convince us 
again and again of Sin and of Righteousness and 
of Judgment. 

In these words, by which our Saviour describes the 
operation of the promised Comforter, I have thought 
it advisable to adopt the reading given in the margin 
of our Version, supported as that reading is by the 
general consent of commentators on the passage (1). 
In the received text, you will remember, the work of 
the Comforter is said to be, to reprove the world of Sin 
and of Righteousness and of Judgment. 'The reason 
which induced our translators to prefer this rendering 
to the other, may perhaps have been, that they thought 
the declaration, that the Spirit should convince the 
world of Sin and of Righteousness and of Judgment, 
is too widely at variance with the fact; seeing that the 
chief part of the world is still without the pale of the 

F 


62 THE CONVICTION OF SIN. 


Church, and that, even within the Church, the num- 
ber of those in whom a living spiritual conviction of 
Sin and Righteousness and Judgment has been 
wrought, is by no means the largest (m). The mean- 
ing of ihe verb reprove however falls far short of the 
original verb éheyzeur, which in a very remarkable 
passage of the first Epistle to the Corinthians, where 
it is used in the same sense, and almost in the same 
relation, as in the text, we translate by convince. If 
all prophesy, we there read (xiv. 24), and there come 
in an unbeliever or an ignorant man, he is convinced 
by all, he is searched by all(x). ‘The words 
which follow prove, that the conviction here spoken 
of, as being wrought by the power of preaching in 
the heart of an unbeliever, or an ignorant beginner 
in Christianity, who happened to come into a Chris- 
tian congregation, is the very same which in the text 
is ascribed to the operation of the Comforter, and for 
the producing of which, prophesying or preaching is 
ever one of the chief instruments employed by the 
Spirit. And thus, St. Paul continues, the secrets of 
his heart are made manifest ; and so, falling down on 
his face, he will worship God, and declare that God is 
truly 1m you. 

Besides, reproving the world of sin is a most inade- 
quate description of the working of the Spirit. We 
did not need that the Spirit of God should come 
down from heaven, to reprove the world of sin. ‘The 
words of men, the thoughts of men, the eloquence of 
men, would have been sufficient to do this. Every 
preacher of righteousness, from the days of Noah 
down to the present day, has gone about reproving 
the world of sin. Everybody who in any age has 


THE CONVICTION OF SIN. 63 


led a just and holy life, not merely one positively and 
absolutely so, but one in any way marked in com- 
parison with his neighbors, has reproved the world 
of sin, at least by his deeds, even though he may 
never have felt called to do so by his words, though 
he should never have lifted up his voice against sin, 
in the ears of the world. Nay, it is not necessary 
that a man should himself be holy and righteous, in 
order that he should cry out against sin. The unholy 
may do so: the unrighteous may do so: the greatest 
and chiefest of sinners may be the loudest in sending 
forth their voice through their hollow mask in reproof 
of their neighbors. Poetry had reproved the world 
of sin: indeed this is the special business of two of 
its branches, comedy and satire. Philosophy had 
reproved the world of sin: and at the time when the 
Spirit of God began His great work of convincing 
the world of sin, the reproofs of Philosophy had be- 
come severer and more clamorous, yet also vainer 
than ever, as she sat on her stately throne in the 
Porch. But what is the world the better for all this 
laborious reproving? How much does the world 
heed it, or care for it? No more than the crater of 
Kitna cares for the roaring and lashing of the waves 
at its feet. The smoke of sin will still rise up, and 
stain the face of heaven, — the flames will still burst 
forth, and spread desolation far and wide, — although 
the waves of reproof should roll around it unceas- 
ingly for century after century. In fact the whole 
history of man has shown, that reproof, when there 
is no gentler and more penetrative power working 
along with it, instead of producing conviction, rather 
provokes the heart to resist it. To reprove the world 


64 THE CONVICTION OF SIN. 


of sin therefore is a task no way worthy of the Spirit 
of God; seeing that it is a work which may easily 
be wrought without His special help, and which has 
been wrought in all ages without it; seeing too that 
it is a work, which, when it is accomplished, is of 
little avail, but passes over men’s hearts, like the wind 
over a bare rock, scarcely stirring so much as a grain 
of dust from it, and which has so passed for age after 
age from the beginning of the world until now. 
Moreover, while this part of the operation of the 
Spirit is thus imperfectly expressed by the words, 
reproving the world of Sin, it is not easy to connect 
any definite meaning with the latter clauses of the 
sentence, which, according to our Version, would 
declare that the office of the Comforter is to reprove 
the world of Righteousness, and to reprove the world 
of Judgment. If the first clause of the sentence 
stood by itself, the word in our language, which 
would answer the closeliest to the original, would per- 
haps be to convict: the Comforter will convict the 
world of Sin. Yet even this would not give the full 
meaning of the passage: for the conviction was not 
to be wrought in the minds of others, whether as 
judges or as mere lookers on, but in the mind and 
heart of the world itself The Comforter also did 
not come to condemn the world, but to save the 
world. When however we take the second and the 
third part of the operation of the Spirit into account, 
I cannot find. any word in our language so well 
fitted for embracing the three cases, as that which 


our Translators have put in the margin: the Com- 


forter will convince the world of Sin, and of Right- 
eousness, and of Judgment. Only the Greek word 


; 
‘ 
4 


THE CONVICTION OF SIN. 65 


implies, more distinctly than the English does ac- 
cording to modern usage, that the persons in whom 
the conviction is to be wrought will resist it. This 
however is always an adjunct of the sense in the 


scriptural use of the word, as where St. Paul says — 


that a bishop should be able to convince the gain- 
sayers (o). Further we must bear in mind that 
in this, as in many other of our Lord’s promises, 
a thousand years are regarded as one day. That 
which was to be effected by His Spirit in the 
Church during the whole course of ages down to the 
end of the world, He concentrates, as it were, into a 
single point of space, and a single moment of time; 
even as our eye, with the help of distance, concen- 
trates a world into a star (pe). For it was not by 
the Tempter alone that all the kingdoms of the earth 
and their glory were shown to Jesus with the prom- 
ise of their being given to Him. God also showed 
them to him always. His Father showed Him how 
the kingdoms of this world were to become the 
kingdoms of God and of His Christ, over which He 
should reign forever and ever. This was the joy 
and the glory for the sake of which He endured the 
Cross, despising both the shame and the glory of 
this world, for the joy and the glory He was to 
bestow on the saints who shall reign with him for- 
eve 

To reprove the world of sin, I have said, is a work 
by no means worthy of the Spirit of God. But to 
convince the world of Sin, —to produce a living and 
lively conviction of it, —to teach mankind what sin 
is, — to lay it bare under all its masks,—to trace it 
through all the mazes of its web, and to light on it 


6 * 


+ 


66 THE CONVICTION OF SIN. 


sitting in the rmnidst thereof, —to show it to man, not 
merely as it flashes forth ever and anon in the overt 
actions of his neighbors, but as it lies smouldering 
inextinguishably within his own bosom,—to give 
him a torch wherewith he may explore the dark 
chambers of his own heart, —to lead him into them, 
and to open his eyes so that he shall behold some of 
Sin’s countless brood crouching or gambolling in 
every corner, — to convince a man of sin in this way, 
by proving to him that it lies at the bottom of all 
his feelings, and blends with all his thoughts, that 
the bright-colored stones, with which he is so fond 
of decking himself out, and which he takes such de- 
light in gazing at, are only so many bits of brittle, 
worthless glass, and that what he deems to be stars 
are earthborn meteors, which merely glimmer for the 
moment they are falling ;— to convince the world of 
sin, by showing it how sin has tainted its heart, and 
flows through all its veins, and is mixed up with its 
lifeblood ;— this is a work which no earthly power 
can accomplish. No human teacher can do it. Con- 
science cannot do it. Law, in none of its forms,- 
human or divine, can doit. Nay, the Gospel itself 
eannot do it. Although the word of God is the 
sword of the Spirit, yet, unless the Spirit of God 
draws forth that sword, it lies powerless in its sheath. 
Only when the Spirit of God wields it, is it quick 
and powerful, and sharper than a two-edged sword, 
* piercing to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit, 
a discerner of the thoughts and purposes of the heart. 
Therefore, as the work of convincing the world of 
sin is one which nothing less than the Spirit of 
God can effect,—and which yet must be eflected 


THE CONVICTION OF SIN. 67 


thoroughly, if sin is to be driven out from the world, — 
our Saviour was mercifully pleased to send the Com- 
forter to produce this conviction in mankind. 

At first thought indeed, when we hear that’ the 
Comforter was sent to convince the world of sin, we 
ean hardly refrain from exclaiming, Of sin? What! + 
can there ever have been a time in the history of the 
world, when the world needed that the Holy Spirit 
of God should come down from heaven, in order 
that it should be convinced of sin? Was there ever 
a time when man could cast his eyes east or west or 
north or south, without secing hosts of sins swarm- 
ing and buzzing around him in every quarter? when 
he could look at what his neighbors were doi ng, when 
he could look into his own heart, and not behold the 
very sight, which we read that God saw in the days 
of Noah, that the imagination of man’s heart is evil 
from his youth? Was there ever a time when man 
needed a light from heaven, wherewith to discern 
that this world, which was made to be the house of 
God, and in which man was set to minister as the 
high-priest, by offering up continual sacrifices of de- 
vout thanksgiving and a reasonable obedience, had 
been converted by him, its apostate high-priest, into a 
den of thieves, in which Covetousness, and Lust, and 
Ambition, and Pride, and Gluttony, and Drunken- 
ness, and Falsehood, and Envy, and Malice, and Cru- 
elty, and Revenge, are ever holding their hellish 
revels? So at first thought one might exclaim: but 
a moment’s reflection will teach us that there hag 
indeed been such a time. Most true though it be, 
that never and nowhere has God left Himself with- 
out a Witness, to convince the world of sin, yet too 


68 THE CONVICTION OF SIN. 


often has that Witness been utterly unheeded: too 
often has its voice been drowned, as the song of a 
lark would be by the roar of a mill stream. The 
waters that are whirled round by the mill-wheel, can- 
not hear the lark singing to them from the heavens: 
nor can we, when we are tossed and dashed about 
by the world’s never resting wheel, hear the voice of 
the Witness that God has set for Himself in our 
hearts. ‘Therefore did God come and speak in the 
thunders of the Law from Sinai. He came and set | 
up another Witness for Himself, to convince the 
world of sin, an outward Witness, a Witness that 
could not be paltered or tampered with, that could 
not be bribed or drugged or lulled, a Witness that 
spake in a voice plain, cold, mighty, all-pervading, 
and unquenchable as Death. Its voice was like the 
voice of Death; and Death was its sanction and its 
penalty. Yet, although God had sent this great 
Witness, to convince the world of sin, the world still 
continued unconvinced. For why? Because the 
Law forbids the outward act, whereas the seat of sin 
is in the secret places of the heart. The Law says, 
Thou shalt not kill: but man will still hate. The 
Law says, Thou shalt not commit adultery : but man 
will still lust. The Law says, Thou shalt not steal: 
but man will still covet. The Law says, Thow shalt 
not bear false witness: but man will still he and de- 
ceive. The Law, from its very nature, can hardly 
take cognizance of those evil desires, that concupis- 
cence in the heart, of which outward acts of sin are 
merely the issue and manifestations: and so long as 
the Law stands alone, so long as there is no heart- 
searching, prophetic Witness to work along with it 


THE CONVICTION OF SIN. 69 


in convincing the world of sin, men will easily be- 
guile themselves into believing that, what the Law 
does not expressly forbid, it allows. Moreover the 
Law works by fear; not by that fear, which is a - 
part of love, and which cannot be separated from it, 
the reverential fear of offending and paining Him 
whom we love,—the fear which would endure any 
hardship, any suffering, rather than offend Him: not 
by this fear does the Law work, but by: that base 
and cowardly fear, which is a part of selfishness, the 
fear of being punished by Him, of whom we take no 
thought, except in that we fear Him. The Law 
therefore could not convince the world of sin, as sin, 
as a thing to be abhorred and shunned on account 
of its own hatefulness and godlessness, but merely 
as a thing to be dreaded and avoided on account of 
the punishments attached to it. So that, even after } 
the Law had been delivered, there was still great 
need of another Witness, a Witness that could | 
search the heart, and turn it inside out, and bring | 
forward all the abominations contained in it,—a_ 
Witness too that should appeal, not to its selfish | 
fears, but to every germ of good left in it, to its love, \ 
to its gratitude, to its pity, to its hope, to its more 
generous desires and aspirations, —a Witness that 
should pick up every little fragment of God’s image 
still remaining in it, and should piece them all to- | 
gether, and make a new whole of them. Such was> 
the Witness that the world needed: and such was” 
the Witness that God in His infinite mercy sent, to ; 
convince the world of sin. oh 
I was asking just now, Can there ever have been 
a time in the history of the world, when it was need- 


70 THE CONVICTION OF SIN. 


ful that the Spirit of God should come down from 
Heaven to convince the world of sin? But may we 
not with better reason reverse the question, and ask, 
Has there ever been a time in the history of the 
world, when it was not needful that the Spirit of God 
should come down from heaven to convince the world 
of sin? a time when the world has been, or could 
have been, convinced of sin by any lesser power? 
Nay, has there ever been a single man, from the days 
of Adam until now, who has not needed that the 
Spirit of God should come to him to convince him 
of sin? Has there ever been a single man, who has 
been able to find out the sinfulness of sin by himself, 
of his own accord, at his own prompting, with no 
other guide than his own heart and understanding? 
Or, —to bring the question home to ourselves, — are 
there any of you, my brethren, who have been con- 
vinced of sin? I trust in God, there are many, very 
many. For, unless you have been convinced of sin, 
you can never have entered beyond the outskirts of 
the Kingdom of Heaven. If you have not expe- 
rienced that conviction, if you do not feel it now, the 
Gospel, it is most certain, cannot to you be the wis- 
dom and the power of God unto salvation; Christ 
Jesus cannot have been made your Wisdom and 
Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption. 
A man who had been born ina prison, and had spent 
his whole life in it, might not be aware that there 
was any thing peculiarly dismal in his lot: but should 
he be delivered from his prison, he could never forget 
that he had once been a captive, and now is free. 
Therefore he who knows not that he once was in 
bonds, must still beinthem. At all events how many 


oe if 


THE CONVICTION OF SIN. ral 


soever there may be among you, who have indeed 
been convinced of sin, —and God grant that there 
may be very many, and that their conviction may 
daily become deeper, and that their number may _ 
continually increase !— you however that have been 
so already, by whom were you convinced? Not by 
yourselves assuredly. You rather fought against the 
conviction, at one time struggled to refute it, at 
another tried to evade it by all manner of excuses, 
often, it may be for years, have driven it from your 
thoughts. Not by yo own consciences. If they 
ever flattered, you listened to them gladly ; if they 
reproved, you turned away. Not by any teachers or 
monitors with whom this world has supplied you. 
The pride and shame of the natural man revolt 
against the thought of a human eye spying into the 
dark places of his heart, and, since in some things 
such monitors must needs be mistaken, in others will 
ever be too harsh, comforts itself with the persuasion 
that the partial error in the indictment vitiates it al- 
together. Nor have you been convinced of sin even 
by the word of Life, full of life and truth and warn- 
ing and admonition as it is, which has been stored 
up for us in the Bible. Any one of these witnesses 
may indeed have been the means employed in work- 
ing the conviction in you; but none of them can 
have wrought it, any more than a hammer can strike, 
without a living hand to wield it. Only when) 
wielded by the arm of the Comforter, is the word of 
God indeed like a hammer, that breaks the stony’ 
crust of the natural heart in pieces. If your con-| 
viction has been effectual, — if it has pierced through | 
the depths of your soul, —if it has laid hold on your 


Fred THE CONVICTION OF SIN. 


Will, and stripped off its tough scales, and made it bow| | 


its stiff neck, and taught it to shrink from the sin of 
which it has been convinced, and to love and to seek 
after the beauty of holiness, — that conviction must 
have come to you from above; it must have been 
wrought in you by the Spirit of God. 

Yet we too have still the same witnesses to con- 
vince us of sin, that were abiding among mankind 
in ages of yore, before the coming of the Saviour. 
We have the voice of Conscience sighing through 
every fresh crack that we make in God’s image in 
our hearts, and conspiring with our Reason and 
Imagination, and every other nobler faculty, to ad- 
monish us that we are betraying our duty, that we 
are outraging our better feelings, that we are mar- 
to admonish us 


ring our true, aboriginal nature, 
that we are polluting our souls, and withering and 
rotting our hearts. But is this enough to convince 
aman of sin? Is it enough to produce that strong, 
living, practical persuasion of the hatefulness of sin, 
and of our being in its hateful bondage, which alone 
can be called conviction? Alas! Conscience is so 
wasted by year long neglect, and crushed by reiter- 
ated violation, that it scarcely ever utters its warn- 
ings and reproofs, except against fresh overt acts of 
sin. It seldom takes notice of our habitual sins: 
still less does it rouse us to contend against that sin- 
fulness, which is inwrought in the natural heart. 
And what is the power of Conscience, even against 
open outbursts of sin? Does not the drunkard 
know, if he will but consider that he is degrading 
himself below the beasts of the field? Does not he 
know that he is quenching his reason, that he is 


nancies meneame 


5 
: 


2 


} 
4 


ia 


i gailen gi, 


THE CONVICTION OF SIN. Te 


blinding the light of his understanding, that he is 
cankering all his better feelings, that he is giving up 
the reins of his will to any fierce passion which may 
chance to seize on them, that he is sowing the seeds 
of all manner of diseases, and provoking Death to 
come and reap the crop? And yet, certain and +- 
indubitable as this is, the knowledge may not im- 
probably never have constrained him to drink a 
single glass the less: nay, he is just as likely to 
drink the more for it, that he may smother, and 
harden himself against the qualms it gives him. 
Does not the libertine and the adulterer know, that 
he is defiling himself, and defiling the partner in his 
crime,— that he is defiling her whom he pretends, 
and may perchance believe that he loves, with the 
foulest and most ignominious impurity? Does not 
he know that he is snapping the holy bond, by which 
alone the families of mankind are held together in 
peace and happiness? Does not he know that he is 
rudely tearing off the blossoms of that one fair plant, 
which our first parents brought with them out of 
Paradise, the sacred plant of pure conjugal love ? 
And yet, the more atrocious the crime, the purer the 
happiness he is blasting, the more innocent the vic- 
tim, the greedier, the more impetuous, the more sin- 
thirsty he will be. What avails it that Conscience 
should tell her beads? he goes on sinning all the 
while. No, my brethren; Conscience assuredly has 
no power to convince sinners of sin. When she is 
uttering her most righteous words, she often is only 
casting pearls before swine. The passions of the 
carnal mind are fretted and _ irritated by the sight of 


7 


74. THE CONVICTION OF SIN. 


what is so unlike themselves, and trample them im- 
patiently in the mire. 

Thus powerless is Conscience for the warfare 
against sin. It will indeed lift itself up for a while, 
ie? it has been rightly trained, to resist the first en- 
croaches of sin. As the waters gather around, and 
begin to heave and swell, it struggles for a while to 
keep its head above them: but the struggles become 
fainter and fainter, while the waters rush on more 
fiercely and tumultuously, until at length it sinks 
beneath them. Whatever strength it may have, 
independently of Christianity, is confined to a very 
few choice spirits. In the great body of mankind it 
is all but extinct: and, where it is not so, it does not 
speak of sin and sinfulness, but rather of virtue and 
the dignity of human nature. In all too it greatly 
needs guidance, instruction, illumination: for its 
voice is merely a kind of tribunician veto, forbidding 
that which is recognized to be wrong: but it has no 
vote in the council of the mind, no discernment in 
itself to determine what is wrong. For this knowl- 
edge it is dependent on our other faculties, intellec- 
tual and moral: and they, although they were all 
designed to be servants and witnesses of Righteous- 
ness, and though they cannot fulfil their constitutive 
idea, unless they are so, yet are too easily perverted 
and depraved into the servants and witnesses of 
Unrighteousness. The Imagination, which ought 
to purify our affections, and to raise us up above the 
narrownesses of the Understanding, and the debase- 
ment of our carnal nature, may too easily become 
the inflamer of our passions. Being the chief con- 


een ee 


THE CONVICTION OF SIN. 7) 


nective link between the visible world and the invis- 
ible, ordained “to glance from heaven to earth, from 
earth to heaven,” it still often turns away from its 
appointed task of spiritualizing the senses, and 
stoops to the ignoble drudgery of sensualizing the 
spirit. And that the Understanding is over-ready to 
quit the straight road, and wriggle along the crooked 
paths of evil, we learn from the example of the ser- 
pent, that was more subtile than any beast of the 
field; an example which has had such hosts of fol- 
lowers, that they who especially professed to be 
teachers of wisdom, became Sophists. 

Or shall we say that the Law at all events must 
needs be sufficient to convince the world of sin? 
For we too have the Law, speaking to us in divers 
ways, and by divers voices. We have the Law of 
God, the very same Law which was delivered to 
Moses on the Mount. We have the Law of God, 
as written in the ordinances of Nature, according to 
which almost every sin is sure to be visited sooner 
or later by some sort of punishment even in this 
world. We have the Law of the land. We have 
the Law of public opinion, by which many sins 
are doomed to shame, by which many sinners are 
branded and become outcasts. We have the Law 
of human affection and esteem, whereby love and 
friendship and honor are awarded to the amiable 
and the deserving, and are forfeited by the unamia- 
ble and the reprobate. We have the purest and 
holiest of all Laws, the Law of the Gospel, with 
all its comfortable assurances, and all its blessed 
promises, the Law delivered on that Mount, which 
spake better things than Sinai of old. But are any 


76 THE CONVICTION OF SIN. 


of these Laws sufficient to convince the world of 
sin? No; nor all of them put together. ‘They 
may convince the world of some sins. ‘They may 
make some persons abstain from some sins. But 
they will never convince the world of sin, nor make 
any one abstain from it altogether. One reason of 
this is, that all these laws, except the last, set their 
face only against certain sins,—it may be graver 
or lighter ones, more definite, or more comprehen- 
sive, —it may be against a greater or a less number 
of them. But they do not set their face against sin 
itself, as an indwelling disease in the heart, alto- 
gether distinct from every outward act and mani- 
festation. They do not attempt to grub up the 
root of sin, and to clear away the multitudinous 
fibres of that root spreading on every side, and 
curling and twining about every feeling and every 
desire. They are content, some of them, with 
lopping off the branches, others with hewing down 
the stem. But sin is not like a fir, which has but 
one stem, and which, if you cut it down, never 
shoots up again. You cannot destroy it, as the 
Asiatic king threatened to destroy Lampsacus, 
itvog Todx0y, at once, summarily, by an outward act, 
by the axe or the sword. On the contrary, if you 
merely cut it down, new suckers are sure to spring 
from it, and it gets many stems instead of one: if 
you merely prune the branches, it will soon become 
more luxuriant than ever. ~So long as the evil spirit 
is cast out by any other power than the Spirit of 
God,—so long as the house from which he is cast 
out remains empty, and the Spirit of God does not 
come to take up His abode in it, —so long as it 1s 


THE CONVICTION OF SIN. 77 


merely swept and garnished, priding itself on its 
own cleanness and neatness,— so long is the casting 
out of no avail. The evil spirit will assuredly come 
back anon, with other spirits worse than himself. 
In spite of all that Law can do, when destitute of 
the higher sanctions of Religion, the vices of a 
nation in the decrepitude of its civilization will be 
far worse than those which stained it when first 
emerging from barbarism. 

The Law of Moses, as set forth in the Old 
Testament, we have already seen, cannot convince 
mankind of sin. It forbids certain sinful acts. It 
may withhold us from committing those acts by the 
punishments it threatens. Or it enjoins certain ob- 
servances, which however, as enjoined by Law, can 
only be outward. But a man might keep all the 
commandments of Moses: so far as the letter goes, 
he might stick to the letter of the whole Law: and 
yet he might wholly neglect the weightier matters 
of it, justice and mercy. We are not told that the 
Pharisee said what was not true, when he boasted 
of his legal righteousness: we are not told that he 
had broken any one of the commandments: the 
Publican no doubt had: and yet the Pharisee in 
‘God’s eyes was a sight more offensive than the 
Publican. For in the Pharisee, as in his whole 


sect, we see the tendency of the Law, not to pro- 


+ 


duce the conviction of sin in those who conformed ° 


to it, but to puff them up with a vain persuasion 

of righteousness, —a tendency akin to that of the 

Stoical philosophy, and shared by every kind of 

righteousness, except that of faith. It is true that 

St. Paul speaks of the Law as a schoolmaster to 
¥j * 


78 THE CONVICTION OF SIN. 


lead us to Christ, and that the way in which it leads 
us to Him, is by convincing us of sin, through our 
inability to fulfil it. But this is only when the 
length and breadth and depth of the Law is set 
before us by the Spirit of God, whereby we learn 
how incapable we are of fulfilling it. St. Paul him- 
self, until he received the conviction of the Spirit, 
believed himself to _be blameless in regard to legal 
righteousness (Phil. iii. 6). When speaking a while 
back of the commandments, I stopped short of the 
tenth; and it may perhaps have struck you that the 
tenth commandment, even according to the mere let- 
ter, does go further than the outward act, and lifts up 
its voice against the sinful desire in the heart. Never- 
theless the tenth commandment is far from enough 
to convince the heart of sin. At the utmost it will 
condemn our evil desires at the time when they are 
grown to a head, and are tempting us to wrong oth- 
ers. So long as they are pent up in our own bosoms, 
so long as they do not amount to a wish of depriving 
our neighbor of that which is his, our hearts will 
readily believe that there is no harm in their evil de- 
sires, —that they may indulge in lust, so that it be 
not after a neighbor’s wife, — that they may indulge 
in covetousness, so that it be not after a neighbor’s. 
property. The world swarms with the servants of 
Mammon and of Ashtaroth, who do not feel that 
there is any condemnation of their practices in the 
letter of this commandment. 

But if the Law of the Old Testament,—that 
Law by which man gained so much clearer, dis- 
tineter, and fuller knowledge of sin, —is insufficient 
to convince the world of sin, much more must the 


THE CONVICTION OF SIN. 79 


same hold with regard to every form of human Law. 
All such Law deals solely with outward acts with 
those outward acts which are hurtful to society, its 
end being the preservation of social order, and the 
repression of whatever would infringe it: such acts~ 
Law forbids under threat of punishment.’ This is 
its only sanction, its only way of enforcing its com- 
mands. If a man however be withheld from break- 
ing the Law, if he be kept out of prison, by no higher 
motive than the fear of punishment, he may be quite 
as bad, if not worse, than many of those who are 
cast into it. Although too the hatred of God against 
sin be manifested in divers ways in the order of na- 
ture, in the framework of society, in the principles 
whereby men are guided in their dealings and feel- 
ings toward each other, — though some sins are pun- 
ished almost infallibly by the loss of health and 
strength, some by public shame and reproach, some 
by the forfeiture of those joys which spring up under 
the steps of such as walk along the path of life in 
unity, — still all this is very far from enough to con- 
vince the world of sin. The various voices of the 
world, which I have just mentioned, merely condemn 
some sins, but take no account of others. Pain fol-t!~ 
lows some sins: shame follows some sins: but some 
are almost held in honor. Affection, in the present 
irregular condition of men’s hearts, is seldom meted 
out with much regard to worth. In fact all these 
Laws, and even the pure and holy Law of the Gos- 
pel, may sound year after year through the hollow 
caverns of our hearts, without awakening one spirit- 
ual feeling in them, without stirring the waters so 
that they shall rise through the network of weeds 


80 THE CONVICTION OF SIN. 


spread over them, without arousing any thing like 
genuine shame, and lively contrition and repentance. 
In that beautiful poem, which I have already cited, 
by one of the meekest and holiest spirits who ever 
adorned the Church of Christ upon earth, we have 
an enumeration of the many graces wherewith God 
surrounds and guards us in a Christian land; and at 
the same time we are admonished how vain they all 
are to convince us effectually of sin. 


Lord, with what care hast Thou begirt us round! 
Parents first season us: then Schoolmasters 
Deliver us to Laws: they send us bound 

To Rules of Reason, holy Messengers, 

Pulpits and Sundays, — Sorrow dogging Sin, 
Afflictions sorted, Anguish of all sizes, — 

Fine nets and stratagems to catch us in, — 
Bibles laid open, — millions of Surprises, — 
Blessings beforehand, —ties of Gratefulness, — 
The sound of Glory ringing in our ears, — 
Without, our Shame, — within, our Consciences, — 
Angels and Grace, — eternal Hopes and Fears. 
Yet all these fences, and their whole array, 

One cunning bosom sin blows quite away. 


It would take me too long,—though the time 
might not be ill spent, — to go minutely through this 
rich list of the graces and blessings, with which God 
encompasses us from our cradle to our grave, for the 
sake of convincing us of sin, and of drawing us 
away from it, from its slavery and its punishment, 
from sin and death and hell, to the path of life and 
the glories of heaven. Parents, with their ever- 
watchful love, sheltering us under their wings until 
we have strength to quit our native nest, — Teachers, 
who train us in the way wherein we are to walk, 
and fit us for discerning it, — Laws, that set the mark 


THE CONVICTION OF SIN. 81 


of death upon sin, — Reason, that would deliver us 
from the mere bondage of Law, and make the ser- 
vice of duty a free and willing service, — the messen- 
gers of the Gospel sent into every corner of the land 
to call us to the knowledge of God, and to the grace 
of Christ,—the word of God proclaimed to His 
people, when they are gathered together in His 
house, — Sundays, with their holy rest and peace, 
their many heavenly voices, their prayers and sacra- 
ments, — the sorrow and abject misery which follow 
at the heels of sin, — the afflictions with which God 
visits His children, sorted to suit their special needs, 
and to unravel the cords with which the world holds 
them down, — anguish, greater or less, according as 
we require it and have strength to bear it,— the 
delicate network of human order and earthly mo- 
tives, which offer a kind of counterpart to the order 
and motives of heaven, and which check us against 
our will in manifold unthought of ways when we 
should otherwise rush into sin, —the Bible laid open 
in every house, and meeting our eyes at every turn, — 
the millions, yes, the millions of surprises, showered 
like stars over the face of life, and evermore remind- 
ing us of God’s wondrous goodness and mercy, and 
warning us to think of death, and teaching us the 
ruin of sin,—the blessings which are poured out 
upon us beforehand, as a foretaste of the joys of 
heaven, long ere we have learned to love God and to 
serve Him, blessings of love and innocent gladness 
and a peaceful conscience, bestowed so bountifully 
even on childhood, — the ties of gratefulness, as well 
as of duty, whereby God makes the voice of nature 
herself declare that we must needs love Him who 


82 THE CONVICTION OF SIN. 


has so loved us,—the song of the angels ringing in 
our ears, Glory to God in the highest, and telling us 
of the glory in store for those who have found peace 
through the good-will of the Eternal Father, — the 
shame which pursues sin without,—the stings of 
Conscience within, — the many servants of God that 
are sent to comfort us with their timely ministra- 
tions, — the Grace bestowed on us in baptism, and 
which the Holy Spirit, if we hinder not His purpose, 
would ever increase and strengthen in our souls,* — 
and finally, in order that we may not be dazzled or 
crushed by the fleeting hopes and fears of this pre- 
sent life, the hopes and fears of eternity, — these are 
the cherubim wherewith God has surrounded our 
Eden, to keep the Tempter from approaching it. 


Yet all these fences, and their whole array, 
One cunning bosom sin blows quite away. 


Seeing therefore how utterly powerless every thing 
human is, how powerless every Law is, even the holy 
Law of God, to convince mankind effectually of 
sin, —that is, to open our eyes, so that we shall see 
all its loathsomeness, and all its snares, so that we 
shall see its power over us and in us, and the living 
death which that power brings upon all such as yield 
themselves to it, and may thus be led to flee from it 
as from a pestilence, and to guard against it as we 
should if a plague were creeping and sweeping 
through the land,—it is a work by no means un- 
worthy of the Spirit of God, — for it is a work which 
nothing but the Spirit of God can accomplish, — to 
convince the world of sin. For, although even in the 


* See Preface to American Edition. 


THE CONVICTION OF SIN. 83 


natural man there is a spirit that lusteth against the 
flesh, yet the flesh in the natural man is from the 
first far more powerful than the spirit, and is always 
lusting against it: and the flesh is daily fed and fat- 
tened by the world, which affords slender nourish- 
ment to the spirit: and every victory it gains makes 
it stronger and prouder, so that the spirit at length is 
almost extinguished within us, even as a glow-worm 
would be extinguished by falling into a muddy pool. 
Yet, unless man were convinced of sin, the salvation 
wrought by Christ would be of no effect. Without 
this conviction by the Spirit, in vain would the Son 
of God have come in the flesh; in vain would He 
have died on the cross for the sins of mankind: man- 
kind would not, could not have been saved. They 
could not, because they would not. Unless a man be 
well aware that he is laboring under a disease, he 
will not think of asking for the remedies which might 
cure him: nor will he take them, although you hold 
them out to him, and although their efficacy may have 
been proved in a multitude of cases, more especially 
if they happen to be distasteful to his vitiated palate. 
If he mistakes the convulsive fits of a fever for the 
vigor of health, he will not consent to practise that 
abstinence by which his fever might be subdued. 
Nor, unless we are fully convinced that our souls are 
tormented by a deadly, clinging disease, and that no 
earthly power or skill can heal them, shall we think 
of applying eamestly for health to the only Physi- 
cian of souls. 

This brings me to consider, though it must needs 
be briefly and very imperfectly, in what manner the 
Spirit convinces the man of his disease, in what man- 


84 THE CONVICTION OF SIN. 


ner He convinces the world of sin. If a man isa 
prey to a mortal disease, which breaks out in blotches 
and sores, there is no use in merely plastering over 
the sores: you must go to the root of the disease, 
and attack it in its strong holds. Else, being checked 
from venting itself outwardly, it will rage the fierce- 
lier within. Just so it is with sin. There is little 
profit in telling a man, who is walking after the lusts 
of the flesh, that such or such an act is wrong. Un- 
less you go to the root of sin within him, from which 
all these wrong acts spring, even though you should 
persuade him to break off some bad practices and 
habits, you will do him little real, lasting, essential 
good. Notwithstanding this reformation, as he will 
deem it, he may continue just as sinful, just as 
thorough a slave of sin as ever. Nay, his case may 
be still more hopeless: for his having overcome a bad 
habit or two may beguile him into fancying that he 
is the master of his own heart, can sway it which 
way he chooses, and has only to will, in order to be- 
come a paragon of virtue. ‘Therefore, when the 
Spirit of God came to convince the world of sin, 


_ what was the sin He began with convincing men of? 


If any of us had to convince a person of the sinful- 
ness of the world, how should we set about it?) We 
should talk of the intemperance, and licentiousness, 
and dishonesty, and fraud, and falsehood, and envy, 
and ill-nature, and cruelty, and avarice, and ambi- 
tion, whereby man has turned God’s earth into a 
place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. These 
however are not the sins, of which the Spirit of God 
convinces the world: because all these might be 


swept away: and yet, unless far more was done, the 


a =. 


Cr 


THE CONVICTION OF SIN. 8 


world would continue just as sinful as before. All 
these sins, this terrible brood of sin, were indeed to 
be found in every quarter of the earth, so far as it 
was then peopled, in our Lord’s days, no less plenti- 
fully than they are now. They had swollen them- 
selves out, and rose up on every side in the face of 
heaven, like huge mountains: they flowed from coun- 
try to country, from clime to clime, like rivers: they 
spread themselves abroad like lakes and seas, lakes 
of brimstone and dead seas, within the exhalations 
of which no soul could come and live. “Whitherso- 
ever the eye turned, it saw one sin riding on the 
back, or starting from the womb of another. This 
was the Babel which all nations were busied in build- 
ing, —and the confusion of tongues did not hinder 
them,—a Babel underground. They went on dig- 
ging deeper and deeper, until its nethermost story 
well nigh reached to hell, and was only separated 
from it by a thin, crumbling crust. Nevertheless the 
Spirit of God, when He came to convince the world 
of sin, and to bring that conviction home to the 
hearts of mankind, did not choose out any of these 
open, glaring sins, to taunt and confound them with. 
He went straight to that sin, which is the root and + 
source of all others, want of faith, the evil heart of 
unbelief. When the Comforter is come, He will con- 
vince the world of sin, because they believe not in Me. 
Now this is a sin, which the world till then had 
never dreamed of as such: and even at this day few 
take much thought about it, except those who have 
been convinced of it by the Spirit, and who therefore 
have been in great measure delivered from it. For 
they who have spent their whole lives in thick spirit- 


8 


86 THE CONVICTION OF SIN. 


ual blindness, and whose eye is still dark, cannot 
know what the blessing of sight is, and therefore can- 
not grieve at their want. They alone, who have 
emerged into light, can appreciate the misery of the 
gloom under which they have been lying. Thus, un- 
til we have begun to believe, we cannot know what 
unbelief is, its misery, its sin, its curse. Want of fy 
+ faith is a sin of which no law accuses _us.. Con- 
science does not accuse us of it. Even among those 
who desire that the confession of their sins shall not 
be an empty form, but a reality, and who, with this 
purpose, are wont to review their conduct, that they 
may seek forgiveness for their recent misdeeds, very 4; 
few, Lam afraid, take much account of their want of 
faith. The chief part look solely to their sins of 
commission, mainly to the evil deeds they may have 
done, then to the evil words they may have spoken, 
sometimes, it may be, to the evil thoughts and feel- 
ings they may have harbored in their hearts. Ifa 
person can tax himself with any act of intemperance 
or impurity,—if he remembers that he has given 
way to his anger, — that he has swerved from truth, — 
if he is distinctly conscious of having indulged in 
proud or vain or envious imaginations, he will feel 
that he has something for which he specially needs 
forgiveness. If he has no such definite charge to 
bring against himself, he will faney his score is clear. 
Yet our excellent Confession should make us equally 
mindful of our sins of omission, of the things which 
we ought to have done, and which we have left un- 
done. This latter half of our sins, it is to be feared, 
very many think little or nothing of; though these 
are far the larger and more numerous half of the two, 


THE CONVICTION OF SIN. 87 


and no less deadly than the other, even as hunger, if 
unfed, is no less deadly than sickness. Nor can they 
be overcome by any one without unceasing watch- 
fulness and prayer: indeed they need this all the 
more from our aptness to leave them unnoticed, 
They are the more numerous half, numerous in the 
very best of us; and as for those, who are not endea- 
voring earnestly to walk in the law of God, and seek- 
ing the help of His Spirit that they may be enabled 
to wall therein, their sins of omission eat up the 
whole of their lives. The whole of their lives is one 
black blot, one vast sin of omission, broken here and 
there by sins of commission flashing through it. 
Now these sins of omission do not merely comprise, 
as at first thought we might incline to suppose, the 
many things which, if we had made a right use of 
our time and opportunities, we might have done, but 
which, through indolence, from giving up our hearts 
to worldly things, from lukewarmness or self-indul- 
gence, we have failed to do; although even this 
would be an appalling list. For when did a day 
pass over the head of any one of us, in looking back 
on which with a searching eye he would not have 
found manifold reason to say? —I might have shown 
kindness to such a person to-day; and I did not: —I 
might have relieved the wants of such another; and I 
did not : — Imight have softened anger by mild words ; 
and I did not: —I might have upheld the cause of the 
oppressed; I might have defended those who were evil 
spoken of ; and I did not: —I might have encouraged 
such a person in good; I might have labored to with- 
hold or withdraw another from evil; and I did not :— 
Lmight have been more diligent, more obedient, more 


88 THE CONVICTION OF SIN. 


zealous of good works: I might have shown more 
reverence to those above me, more indulgence to those 
below me: I might have done all this; and therefore 
tought to have done all this. For whatever we can 
do in the service of God, and for the good of our 
brethren, according to the discreetest economy of our 
time, with due regard to the various claims upon it, 
we ought to do.» The only way in which we can 
show our thankfulness to God for His inestimable 
goodness in preparing good works for us to walk in, 
is by striving to walk in them with all our might. 
Yet this is not all. As in positive sins, in sins of 
commission, we sin in deed and word and thought, 
so in negative sins, in sins of omission, do we like- 
wise sin, not only in deed and word, but also in 
; thought. Now this last head of sins, the sins of 
omission in thought, contains the great prime sin, of 
which the Comforter came to convince mankind, the 
sin of unbelief, the sin of want of faith, the sin of 
living without God in the world. Laws, inasmuch 
as by their nature they deal only with that which 
manifests itself outwardly, in deed or in word, take 
no cognizance of this sin. Conscience, which only 
sounds when some positive sin is trampling upon it, 
is silent about this. Therefore, if we were to be con- 
vinced of it at all, pressing was our need that the 
Spirit of God should graciously vouchsafe to con- 
vince Us. 

But how comes this to be the great prime sin, the 
mother sin of all sins? ‘Think, brethren, a moment 
where we are; think what our business is here. We 
are in God’s world; we are God’s creatures: but 
yet we are cut off from God. We are, as it were, 


ia a 


THE CONVICTION OF SIN. &9 


outcasts from God, shut up in the prison of the 
body, and bound heart and soul and mind with the 
chains of the senses. The walls of this our prison 
hide Him from us. We can neither see Him with 
our eyes, nor hear Him with our ears: still less can 
our smell or taste or touch bring us into His presence. 
Therefore our great business here on earth is to live 
by faith: for only through faith can we live in the 
presence of God. When we look through the cham- 
bers of this our prison, we find that in it, however 
stunted and pining with long confinement in an 
alien atmosphere, there is still an understanding 
which has some faint power of discerning the ways 
of God, and a heart which may be brought to feel 
some faint motion of love for God. If we believed 
in Him, we should be better able to discern Him, 
and far better able to love Him. But inasmuch as 
Wwe cannot perceive Him with our senses, we need 
the eye of faith. Faith should lift us out of the 
prison of the body, and free us from the bondage of 
the senses, and bear us up into the presence of Him, 
whom no eye hath seen, or can see. Moreover, as 
God alone is good in Himself, as He is the only 
‘Fountain of all good, so that nothing is good except 
what comes from God, and is received and held in 
communion with Him, itis plain that, where there 
is no faith, there can be nothing truly good. The 
bond of union with God is snapped. The one chan- 
nel, through which good can flow into our hearts, is 
eut off Hence we must be like members severed 
from their body: every thing about us must have 
the taint of death, must partake more or less of the 
nature of sin. Now what is the state of the world 
ol 


90 THE CONVICTAN OF SIN. 


with regard to faith? /Surely the world is without 
faith. Until our heayfs have been renewed by the 
Spirit of God, faith, in this its highest relation, as 
faith in God, is very weak in most of us, in many 
almost an utter blank. Therefore do we give up 
our mind to dig in the quarries of the body, and our 
heart to work in the hulks of the senses. We clothe 
ourselves in the convict-dress of the lusts of the flesh, 
and put out the eyes of the reason, and tie a clog to 
the heels of the understanding, and clip the wings 
of the imagination, and muzzle ‘the will, and tar and 
' feather our feelings with the dust and dirt of the 
earth. If we had faith in its full life and strength, — 
if our faith were indeed the substance of things 
hoped for, the evidence of things unseen, —if it 
gave a body to the future and invisible, so that we 
could see it as with our eyes,—if our understand- 
ings were opened to behold heaven and hell, with 
the same clearness with which we behold the sky 
over our heads, and the earth under our feet, —if 
we could feel the blessedness of communion with 
God, the unutterable woe of separation from Him, 

as livelily and intensely as we feel the pleasures and 
pains of the senses, — it would be impossible for us 
to sinfAs it is declared that the pure in heart shall 
segfCiod, so if we had that faith which would enable 
us to see God ever standing at our right hand, and 
compassing us about with the arms of His power 
and love, how could we be otherwise than pure in 
heart? For impurity, of whatsoever kind, sin, of 
whatsoever kind, is the turning away from God. It 
is turning our thoughts away from God, and fixing 
them ever on other objects than God. It is turning 


THE CONVICTION OF SIN. 91 


our heart away from God, and giving it up to some- 
thing apart from God,—to something that we love, 
not in God and through God, as His creature, and 
His gift, in humble thankfulness to the Giver, but 
without God, and against God, and in despite of 
God, without a thought of Him, against His will, in 
despite of His commandment. It is taking our faith 
away from God, and placing it in something else, — 
the believing that there is any thing real, any thing 
true, any thing lasting, any thing good and worthy 
and lovely, except God, and that into which He is 
pleased to pour out from the riches of His surpass- 
ing excellences, — the believing that happiness may 
be found in something beside communion with God, 
and dutiful obedience to His will. For this is the 
curse of unbelief’ We will not believe the truth; 
and therefore God has given us up to believe all 
manner of lies. There is nothing too gross, too 
senseless, too wild and extravagant for us to believe. 
We believe that the fleeting pleasures of the flesh 
are more substantial and precious than the enduring 
joys of the spirit,—that the fitful admiration and 
favor of feeble man are more to be desired than the 
grace and love of Almighty God,—that earth is 
truer and more real than heaven, —that a life of a 
few years is longer and of more importance than a 
life through eternity, — that the scarred and bloated 
carcase of sin, with its death’s head, and its stinging 
snakes coiling restlessly around it, is lovelier and 
more to be desired than the pure and radiant beauty 
of holiness. Yes, alas, we assuredly do believe these 
lies: we believe them, all of us, more or less: the 
natural man believes them wholly; and we never 


92 THE CONVICTION OF SIN. 


get so far quit of the natural man, as to escape from 
the last maze of this never-ending labyrinth of false- 
hood. By our conduct we show almost daily, in 
one way or other, that we do believe these lies. Yeq 
if we had faith, this would be impossible. For faith, 
while it taught us that God is to be loved above all 
things, and that a union with God is to be desired 
above all things, would at the same time teach us 
that whatever draws us away and separates us from 
God, is to be shunned and cast out and abhorred. 
Thus faith takes the charm out of every temptation, 
and turns its sweetness into bitterness, its honey into 
gall. Were a cup of pleasant wine put into your 
hands, and you knew for certain that a deadly 
poison was mixed up with the wine, which would 
rack you with the fiercest pains, and ere long tear 
soul and body in sunder,—who would drink it? 
who would not dash it from him forthwith? Yet, 
if we had but faith, we should know and feel that 
sin is deadlier than the deadliest poison, that it racks 
us with fiercer pains, and gives us over to a more 
terrible dissolution. For it cuts us off from God, 
from Him who is the only Source of all blessing and 
peace and joy. 

Hence it is, because our want of faith, and the 
consequent estrangement from God, is our prime, 
original misery and sin,— because it is the curse, 
through which man’s heart only brings forth thorns 
and thistles, — because it is the occasion, if not the 
cause, of every other sin, from all which Faith would 
- infallibly preserve us, — and because, if we continued 
without faith, even though every other sin were 
thoroughly purged from the earth, a fresh brood 


THE CONVICTION OF SIN. 93 


would immediately spring forth,— therefore it was 
that, when the Spirit of God Came to convince the 
world of sin, the sin He chose out to be the special 
object of His conviction, was want of faith. Our 
Lord’s words, however, I may be reminded, are not 
that the Comforter will convince the world of sin, 
because they believe not in God, but because they } 
believe not in Me (a); so that this was the oreat sin< 
of the world, the sin of which it was to be convinced, 
that it did not believe in Christ. That is to say, it 
did not believe Him to be the Incarnate, Onlybegot- 
ten Son of God, the appointed King and Saviour of 
mankind, and did not believe in Him as such, as 
God manifest in the flesh. For God, as He is in 
Himself, in the mystery of His own unapproachable 
being, as He dwells in the bright abyss of His own 
timeless eternity, — He, before the glory of whose 
face the archangels veil their eyes, — He, whom 
none has known or can know, except the Onlybe- 
gotten Son, and the Spirit who is One with the 
Father and the Son,— can hardly become a distinct 
object even of faith to man. It is only when He 
vouchsafes to come forth out of His absolute God- 
hood, in the Person of His Son and Spirit, — when 
He spreads out His mantle through space, and bids 
world after world start forth from it, and blossom 
in unfading lightt—when He gathers together the 
waters of His Eternity into the channel of Time, and 
commands the days and the years to ripple and roll 
along them,—it is only when He shows forth His 
eternal power and lordship in the beauty and order 
of the universe, in the manner in which matter is 
made to bow its stubborn neck to law, and to be- 


94 THE CONVICTION OF SIN. 


come instinct with motion, and to yield to the trans- 
forming powers of lffe,—in the manner in which 
worlds, and systems of worlds, and countless systems 
of beings in each world, are made to work harmont- 
ously together, revealing an unfathomable Unity as 
the groundwork of infinite diversity, —it is only 


as He declares Himself to man by the Law written © 


in his heart, and»comes to him amid the desert of 
this sensual life in the still small voice of Conscience, 
— it is only as God has been pleased to make Him- 
self known by these manifold witnesses, whom He 
has set up for the manifestation of His glory, that 
man, without some more special revelation, could 
know any thing or believe any thing of God. Nor 
could all these revelations, wonderful and glorious as 
they were, avail to produce a living faith in any child 
of man. For a living faith implies an immediate, 
conscious, personal relation: but all the above-men- 
tioned revelations, except the last, are universal, in 
which every finite being is swallowed up in the 
Infinite, like the stars in the Milky-way. On the 
other hand, God’s revelation of Himself, when He 
stamped His own image on the soul of man, became 
so marred and faint after the Fall, that man entirely 
lost sight of its heavenly Original, and regarded it as 
the creature of his own mind. ‘Therefore, when God 
was pleased to reveal Himself more especially to 


man, He revealed Himself at once as standing in a ~ 


direct relation to man, the God of a chosen family, 
of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and the God of 
a chosen people, and at the same time as the Author 
and Giver of a Law, to which the Law in the heart 
gave answer, and wherein it recognized its original. 


THE CONVICTION OF SIN. 95 


And at length, in the fulness of time, He revealed 
Himself in the person of His Onlybegotten Son, 
taking our nature upon Him, entering into the com- 
munion of all our sorrows and infirmities, and plac- 
ing Himself in the most immediate personal relation 
to all mankind as their Teacher and King, and to each 
individual child of man as his Redeemer and Saviour. 
Moreover, in order that all things might be reconciled 
to God and to each other by His great Atonement, 
He declared Love to be the living principle of the 
Law; thereby setting all the affections of the heart 
at one with the ordinances of duty, and teaching us 
that every act of obedience to God’s Law is not 
merely enforced on us by the fear of His power and | 
wrath, but is exactly what, even without any posi- | 
tive injunction, our own hearts, if duly enlightened 
and purified, would have imposed upon themselves. 

Here a difficulty comes across us. In referring just 
now to our Lord’s declaration that the pure in heart 
shall see God, lremarked that the converse also is 
true, and that they who see God must be pure in 
heart. In fact every impurity is like a cloud, spread- 
ing before our spiritual eye, and blotting out God 
from our sight. Thus it is only by purity of heart, 
that we can attain to seeing God; while it is only 
through faith, whereby we are enabled to see God, 
that our hearts can be purified. This is one of the 
dilemmas of perpetual occurrence, when an idea is 
subjected to the operations of the understanding, 
which breaks it up into parts, and contemplates the 
parts under the category of succession, whereas in 
themselves they are one, without a before or after, 
Unless God dwells in our hearts, and hallows them 


96 THE CONVICTION OF SIN. 


\ with His presence, they cannot be otherwise than im- 


pure; yet, unless they are pure, God cannot dwell in 
' them. For this reason, when the Comforter came to 


Naini 


convince the world of sin, the sin, of which He con- 


/ vinced the world, was not that they did not believe in 


God: for in God, the Unknown God, the Absolute, 
Infinite, Self-existent Author of all being, cut off and 
shut out from Him as they were, they could not have 
any lively faith. Wherefore, after having manifested 
Himself to mankind in divers ways, in the fulness of 
time, when the world by a multitude of contrary and 
often conflicting processes had been ripened for the 
reception of a reconciling faith, God sent forth His 
Onlybegotten Son, who was the Express Image of 
His Person, that in Him men might believe, and 
through Him in the Father. Hereby he left our un- 
belief utterly without excuse. Seeing that we were 
so totally estranged from Him, that the narrowness 
of our minds could not recognize Him as God, nor 
the feebleness of our hearts lift them up to Him as 


such, He sent His Son to dwell amongst us in the 


form of a Man, that we might know Him in whom 
we were to believe. Seeing that we shrank in awe 
from the contemplation of His Infinitude and Om- 
niscience, or lost ourselves in star-gazing thereat, 
Christ came to us in the form of a Servant, to prove 
to our unbelieving, carnal minds that what is most 
godlike in God is not His power. ‘T’o wean our 
hearts from tle love of the world, to teach us the 
worthlessness of its pomps and vanities, He came, not 
as a King, according to the earthly notion of royalty, 
setting up His throne on the necks of prostrate na- 
tions, wafted aloft by their admiring shouts, and 


Oe a he eae Fe ee 


THE CONVICTION OF SIN. 97 


clothed either in outward riches and grandeur, or in 
the riches and grandeur of a commanding intellect 
and an imperious will, but in a lowly estate, without 
form or comeliness, the Son of a ca ‘penter, poorer 
than the poorest person in this congregation, a Wan- 
derer on the face of the earth, not having where to 
lay His head. Thus came He, who was the Son of 
God. ‘That the justice and holiness of God might 
not scare us, He came as the Messenger of pardon 
and peace. That the burden and shame of our sins 
might not keep us away, He called on us to cast the 
burden upon Him, and Himself bore the shame on 
the cross. He came to reconcile us to God, to teach 
us what God is, and how we may become like God, 
and live as becomes His children. He showed us 
that God is Mercy and Love, that we are to become 
like God by living a life of merey and love, that we 
are to behave as the children of God by a dutiful, 
ready obedience to the will of our Heavenly Father. 
Perfect God, He was also Perfect Man, the Image 
of His Father, and a Pattern for all who desire to 
become the children of His Father. 

This therefore, since the coming of Christ, is the 
great, the inexcusable sin of the world, that they will 
not believe in Christ. Faith in God, we have seen, 
is the source of all spiritual life, which can only flow 
from communion with Him; and the want of that 
faith is the barrenness, out of which all sin springs. 
Without that faith we have nothing to stand on, 
nothing to hold by. Our reason has no assurance of 
an all-controlling Law, our life no heavenly Arche- 
type, our heart no eternal Home. From that faith 
however we have departed so far, that of ourselves 


9 


98 THE CONVICTION OF SIN. 


we can never regain it. We can no more bring our- 
selves to believe in God, than we can mount after 
the eagle up the crystal stairs of the sky. We may 
indeed be borne up by the wind, but only into a 
cloud, from which the next moment we may fall 
plumb down into the bottomless pit. In Christ, on 
the other hand, we may believe. ‘That 1s to say, the 
Godhead is browght down to us in Christ in a man- 
ner that does not surpass the reach of our hearts and 
minds. Nor is there any thing in Christ to frighten 
us away from Him. All His words are full of mercy 
and love; and He is ever calling us to come to Him. 
Although we are sinners, the shame of our sins must 
not make us fear to approach Him: for it was to sin- 
ners He especially came, to call them to repentance 
and newness of life. Therefore, if we will not be- 
lieve in Christ, there must be some deep-rooted 
power of sin within us, that keeps us away from 
Him. It must be, that we love our sins, and will not 
forsake them. It must be, that we shun God, and 
will not allow the dew of His love to refresh us, — 
that we will not be won by His mercy, — that we 
make light of His pardon, and scorn His peace. 
Among those who stay away from Christ, who 
sill not believe in Him, who will not come to Him, 
the motive of the chief part has ever been, that they 
are destitute of the consciousness of sin, and of all 
thoughts and wishes rising above the objects of the 
senses, or else that they love their sins, and are de- 
termined to cleave to them, in despite of all that God 
can do to draw them away. Others there are, who 
will not believe in Christ through pride and self- 
righteousness. Others have involved themselves inex- 


: THE CONVICTION OF SIN. 99 


tricably in the labyrinthine abstractions of a sceptical 
understanding. Some will say, in their high-swelling 
imaginations, that they need no Redeemer, no Ran- 
som, no Reconciler, no Atonement, no Pardon, — 
that they can find the way to God by themselves, — 
that they can build up a tower of their own virtues, 
a grand and gorgeous tower, virtue above virtue, the 
top of which shall reach to heaven. Such men there 
have been more oy less in all ages; and the way 
their devices have been baffled has ever been the 
same, by the confusion of tongues. They have been 
unable to understand one another's language. When 
one of them has asked for bread, his neighbor has 
given him a stone; when asked for a fish, he has 
given a serpent; indifference and scorn, instead of 
sympathy and encouragement: The hand of each 
has been against his brother. There has been no 
unity of spirit amongst them, but variance and strife 
and railing: they have never entered into the bond 
of peace. This is the other form of sin, by which 
men are kept away from Christ. The great mass 
stay away, because their hearts are paralyzed and 
crumbled by carelessness and self-indulgence, or rot- 
ted by the cankering pleasures of sin; the few, be- 
cause their hearts are hardened and _ stiffened by 
pride. The former cannot believe in Christ, the lat- 
ter will not. Of both these sins, and of every other 
form of sin by which men are withheld from believ- 
ing in Christ, the Comforter came to convince the 
world. The Comforter! Does it seem a strange 
name to any of you, my brethren, for Him who came 
on such an errand? Does it seem to you that, in 
convincing you of your sins, instead of comforting 


100 THE CONVICTION OF SIN. 


you, He must needs cover you with shame and con- 
fusion, and make you sink to the ground in unutter- 
able anguish and dismay? No, dear brethren, it is 
not so. ‘hose among you whom the Spirit has in- 
deed convinced of sin, will avouch that it is not. 
They will avouch that, in convincing them of sin, 
He has proved that He is indeed the Comforter (Rr). 
If the conviction and consciousness of sin arises 
from any other source, then indeed it is enough to 
crush us with shame, and to harrow us with unim- 
aginable fears. But when it comes from the Spirit 
of God, it comes with healing and comfort on its 
wings. Remember what the sin is, of which He con- 
vinces us, — that we believe not in Christ. All other 
conviction of sin would be without hope: here the 
hope accompanies the conviction, and is one with it 
If we have a deep and lively feeling of the sin of not 
believing in Christ, we must feel at the same time 
that Christ came to take away this along with all 
other sins. He came, that we might believe in Him, 
and that through this faith we might overcome the 
world, with all its temptations, its fears and its 
shame, as well as its pleasures and lusts. And O 
what comfort can be like that, which it yields to the 
broken and contrite spirit, to feel that the Son of 
God has taken away his sins,—that, if he has a 
true living faith in Christ, they are blotted out for- 
ever, and become as though they had never been? 
What joy, what peace can be like this, to feel that 
we are not our own, but Christ’s? that we are be- 
come members of His holy body, and that our life 
has been swallowed up in His? that we can rest in 
His love with the same undoubting confidence with 


THE CONVICTION OF SIN. 101 


which a child rests in the arms of its mother ? that,’ 
if we believe in Him, we have nothing to fear about 
the feebleness and falling short of our services? for 
that He will work out our salvation for us; yea, that 
He has wrought it out. Who then is he that con- 
demneth? It is Christ that died for us, to take away 
our sins, and is risen again for us, to clothe us in His 
righteousness, and sitteth at the right hand of God, 
ever making intercession for us, that we may be sup- 
ported under every trial and danger, and strengthened 
against every temptation, and delivered from the sin 
of unbelief and all other sins, and girt with the 
righteousness of faith, and crowned with all the 
graces which spring from faith, and at length may be 
received into the presence of the Father, into which 
our Elder Brother has entered before us. To whom, 
as He dwelleth in the bosom of the Father, ever 
pleading in behalf of His Church, and to the Spirit 
of the Comforter, whom He has sent to sanctify that 
Church, and to bring the world into it by the convic- 
tion of Sin and of Righteousness and of Judg- 
ment,—in the Unity of the Eternal Godhead, — be 
all glory and thanksgiving and blessing and adora- 
tion now and forever. , 


O- 


SERMON III. 


THE CONVICTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 


WHEN THE COMFORTER IS COME, HE WILL CONVINCE THE WORLD OF 
SIN, AND OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND OF JUDGMENT; OF RIGHTIOUS- 
NESS, BECAUSE I GO TO MY FATHER, AND YE SEE ME NO MORE. — John 
xvi. 8, 10. 


Tue first work of the Comforter, as set forth by 
our Lord, when He promised to send the Spirit of 
Truth to His disciples, is to convince the world of 
sin: and we have seen what need there was of this 
conviction, how greatly the world needed it, how it 
could not be wrought by any other power, and con- 
sequenily how it was necessary, for the fulfilment of 
Christ’s gracious purpose to save the world, that the 
world should be convinced of sin by the Spirit of 
God. liver since the Fall, the world has been lying 
under sin. ‘This was the crushing mountain cast 
upon the race that had rebelled against God, a moun- 
tain which sprang out of their own entrails, the root 
of which was in their own hearts. Beneath it they 
pined and groaned in their forlorn anguish. Beneath 
it ever and anon they heaved, and tried to shake off 
some portion of the burden. At times, when a higher 
power stirred them to more than ordinary efforts, 
some clefts and fissures were rent in the mountain, 
and they caught glimpses of the heavens, which it 


THE CONVICTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 103 


mostly shut out from their sight. But such glimpses 
were brief and fleeting: they were seldom caught, 
except at the season when the heart of a nation was 
teeming with the vernal energies of youth: ere long 
the mountain of sin closed over it again: new sins 
shot out to choke up the clefts and fissures: the 
darkness seemed to become still thicker and more 
hopeless: and they, who before had reared and strug- 
gled against it, sank in torpid despondence into the 
abysmal sleep of death. Even at best man only 
strove to overcome some particular sins, not to over- 
come and utterly cast away sin itself. For why? 
Sin was his own child, the offspring of his own cor- 
rupt nature: and though he was able to make out 
that some of its features were unsightly, and some of 
its limbs distorted, he could not recognize, — no 
parent can,—that it was altogether a monster. 
Being degenerate himself, he perceived not that sin 
was not the rightful birth of his own true, aboriginal 
nature: for he knew not what that nature ought to 
have brought forth. He saw not, he had never seen, 
any pattern of righteousness, by comparison with 
which he might have discerned his own image, both 
in its heaven-born purity, and in its earth-sprung de- 
formity. He knew not what he ought to have been ; 
and so he could not feel a due shame and horror and 
loathing at the contemplation of what he was. 

Such was the state of the world, when the Com- 
forter came from heaven to convince it at once of 
Sin and of Righteousness: and such also, more or 
less, is the state of every soul, until the Spirit of God 
comes to it to work the same twofold conviction. In 
this, as in other respects, the life of each individual 


104 THE CONVICTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 


is a sort of likeness and miniature of that of the 
race. In every man there is a growth of sin, rooted 
in the depths of his heart, and which has sprung up 
from thence contemporaneously with the first awaken- 
ing of his consciousness, so that he cannot even con- 
ceive the possibility of being without it. He cannot 
by nature even conceive it possible that he should 
ever act from other motives, or with other aims, than 
those which come from this root of sin. And this root 
of sin is not single, but complex. or in every man 
there is a root of selfishness. He will seek his own 
good, or what he deems to be such, not the glory of 
God, not the upholding of Order and Law, not the 
manifestation and establishment of Truth, not, least 
of all perhaps, the good of his fellow-creatures. Nay, 
they who call themselves philosophers, tell him that he 
cannot act from any other motive, that he must seek 
his own good, that the notion of seeking any thing 
else is a fantastical delusion, and that the only differ- 
ence between wisdom and folly, between viriue an 

vice, is, that wisdom and virtue are longer-sighted, 
and fix on remoter and more lasting benefits, on stars, 
instead of ignes fatui. Hence, so long as we follow 
the impulses of our nature, we are apt to refer every 
thing to some selfish end, to our own pleasure, to our 
profit, to our advancement and exaltation.’ We do 
this, as the main business of our lives; and we think 
it right and fitting so to do: we are told on all sides 
that it is right and fitting: we have no conception 
that it can be wrong: we cannot even dream of act- 
ing otherwise: and thus it is utterly impossible, until 
eur hearts and minds are lifted out of this state of 
darkness, that we should have a true conviction 


oe! Se ee 


THE CONVICTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 105 


either of sin or of righteousness. Again, in every 
man there is a root of worldly-mindedness. The 
world is in all our thoughts; and God is not. It 
rushes upon us with an overwhelming torrent: it en- 
ters into the soul through our eyes, through our ears, 
through every inlet of the senses, through all our 
instincts, through all our wants, which crave after the 
things of this world, through all our natural affec- 
tions, Which fix on the creatures of this world: and 
thus it smothers and almost extinguishes every germ 
of feeling that would lead us to something higher, to 
something beyond the reach of the senses. Hence 
our aims, our purposes, our wishes, our hopes, our 
fears are all hemmed in by the world, and summed 
up init. A vigorous effort is requisite to shake off 
this crushing weight even for a moment, to look even 
for a moment through this bright, gaudy mask, which 
so dazzles and fascinates the senses: and what shall 
prompt us to make such an effort ? what shall endue 
us with strength to persevere in it? Even when 
voices come to us and tell us of another world, the 
unceasing din of this world overpowers them: we 
fancy they must come from a region of dreams and 
shadows, which the daylight of real life dispels: and 
thus, as years roll on, and every year draws a fresh, 
hard layer around the central spirit, we become more 
and more thoroughly persuaded that this visible 
world is our only home. Unless some higher power 
enable us to shake off the yoke of the world, each of 
us grows by degrees to deem of himself’ as only one 
among the myriads of horses set to drag on the cha- 
riot of 'Time,—to deem that his only pleasure is to 
snatch what provender he can, as he rushes along the 


106 THE CONVICTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 


way,—that his only glory is to surpass his yoke- 


fellows in speed, — and that anon, when his strength 


fails, the chariot will pass over him, and millions of 
hoofs will trample him to dust. Moreover in every 
man there is a root of carnal or fleshly-mindedness. 
fis soul is drugged from childhood upward with the 
stimulants and opiates of the senses; and he looks 
upon it as right and becoming and inevitable to de- 
sire such pleasures, to seek after them, to indulge in 
them, so that it be not intemperately and hurtfully. 
In every man’s heart there is this triple root of 
sin ; —no one who knows his own heart will dispute 
it;—the root of selfishness, from which spring self- 
indulgence, self-will, self-esteem, and the whole brood 


; of vanity and pride;—the root of worldly-minded- 


[ 


— 


ness, which issues in ambition, in covetousness, in 
the love of money, in the desire of advancement, of 


, honor, of power;—and the root of carnal-minded- 


ness, from which, if it be not cut down betimes, and 
kept diligently from shooting up again, the lusts of 
the flesh will sprout rankly, and overrun and stifle 
the soul. In their excess, indeed, when these vices 
become injurious to a man himself, or to others, they 
are reprobated by the judicious and sober-minded. 
But when they are kept under a certain control, so 
far are they from being reprobated, that the man 
who so controls them is counted worthy of admira- 
tion. ‘These too are the motives and incentives con- 
stantly urged and appealed to in men’s dealings 
with each other, even, alas! in the processes of edu- 
cation; which is too often a systematic training and 
exercising of the young in habits of selfishness, of 
worldly-mindedness, nay, not seldom of carnal-mind- 


THE CONVICTION OF RIGITEOUSNESS. 107 


edness, whereby those vices acquire an uncontested 
sway in the heart. For they who are themselves 
worldly-minded and carnal-minded, cannot under- 
stand how it is possible to act upon others by any mo- 
tives save those the force of which they themselves 

acknowledge, whips and spurs, bribes and blows, the 
hope of reward and the fear of punishment. They 
cannot understand how a heart can be drawn, when 
no other force is applied to it than the unseen cords 
of love. Not knowing the power of God, not know- 
ing how that power is essentially and indissolubly 
one with His holiness, they think they shall never be 
strong enough to contend against the powers of evil, 
unless they enlist some of those powers on their own 
side. They cannot believe that there is any sure 
plan of driving out or keeping under one devil, ex- 
cept by calling in the aid of another. Thus children 
are made to walk from the first in the way in which 
they should not go. The very processes of educa- 
tion bear witness to the radical corruption of our 
nature. ‘hey show that evil has spread through 
every region of our thoughts, until we cannot even 
conceive the possibility of doing without it; so that, 
in seeking strong medicines, we can find none but 
poisons. ‘The child is brought up under the persua- 
sion that he is altogether a child of this world, that 
he is so, and cannot be otherwise, and is not even to 
think of being otherwise. He is made indeed to 
learn a lesson out of a book, which tells him that he 
is a child of God, and the heir of a heavenly King- 
dom; and he is bid to reverence this book as sacred. 
But this, he is compelled to conclude, must mean 
that the lesson has no manner of bearing on the 


108 THE CONVICTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 


affairs of this world, and is only designed to be laid 
by in some remote cellar of his mind, that 1t may 
serve him instead when all things of higher value 
and more pressing interest are swept away. For 
the present he is unremittingly admonished that his 
main business is to get a permanent footing here on 
earth, to appropriate as much as he can of the goods 
of this world, to lift himself up as high as he can 
in the eyes of his neighbors. Such is the ordinary 
- course of education even in this Christian land; and 
almost all the changes, almost all the improvements, 
as they have been deemed, which have been made 
in our systems of education since the beginning of 
this century, have only tended more and more to eall 
out and inflame the worldly stimulants of action, 
more and more to draw the student out of the quiet 
garden of loving contemplation, into the throng and 
pressure of emulous contention. 

Thus wofully does our mode of education, which 
in a Christian land ought to aim at convincing the 
heart and mind from the first both of sin and of 
righteousness, tend in all its stages, from the nursery 
up to the university, to confound the ideas of the 
two, setting up what is deemed a middle term be- 
tween them as the object of aim and worship, but 
what in fact is the mere offspring of sin, masking 1t- 
self in the garb of righteousness. For hell is ever 
striving to rise up into a likeness of heaven; but 
there are no steps or shadings off by which heaven 
can descend from its ethereal purity to the borders 
of hell. And then, when the youth, who has been 
thus trained, comes forth into the world, he finds the 
same deficiencies and the same confusion in the in- 


THE CONVICTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 109 


stitutions and practices of society, which have already 
proved so delusive and pernicious to him. For civil 
society, being the creature of this world, and having 
its ground and its end in this world, inevitably re- 
gards its members as children of this world, and in 
all its dealings with them treats them mainly, if not 
absolutely, as such. Moreover its chief immediate 
purpose is much rather protection from evil, than the 
exercising of any positive influence for eliciting or 
promoting good. I speak not of what it ought to 
be, according to the highest idea of the body politic, 
but of what it ever has been, and is. Even laws, 
which are the utterance of the moral voice of the 
State, confine themselves to prohibition and repres- 
sion. ‘hey do not attempt to cultivate the fields of 
righteousness, but merely to erect a palisade and net- 
work against the inroads of crime, driving in new 
stakes, and weaving new meshes, in proportion as 
evil devises new snares and new modes of attack. 
Their language is, Thou shalt not, speaking to him 
who is inclined to violate them, and seldom enjoin- 
ing any thing good, because it belongs to them to be 
imperative; whereas good cannot be enforced; it 
being of the very essence of good to be free and 
spontaneous, not to spring from constraint and com- 
pulsion. On the other hand, while the very efforts 
which society makes for the sake of righteousness, 
are thus confined to that which is merely negative, 
he who walks abroad in the world, and listens to its 
voices, and mixes in its doings, finds a universal con- 
spiracy, I might almost call it, in behalf of sin, 
against holiness and godliness. He finds the habits, 
the manners, the customs, the practices of men, all 

10 , 


110 THE CONVICTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 


leagued in favor of this world, all combined to hold 
up the prizes of this world as the sole objects of de- 
sire and endeavor. He finds false notions of honor, 
false views of propriety, false estimates of interest: 
duty is left out of account: heaven is condemned to 
remain within the church-door. The whole language 
of conversation is infected with this taint; and it 
might fill a thoughtful man with sadness, if not with 
despondency, to observe how subtily it insinuates it- 
self into the commonest remark on the conduct of 
others, to hear how people reason and jest and praise 
and blame, as though it were utterly inconceivable 
that a man should act from any motive, except such 
as have respect to his own temporal advantage. 
Thus the evil tendencies of our nature are rooted 
and confirmed; and the vices which spring from 
them are perpetuated, and transmitted from genera- 
tion to generation. Instead of checking and sup- 
pressing them, the customs of society rather foster 
and strengthen, and in a manner legalize them; so 
that they could not but spread more and more wide- 
ly, and become ranker and more ineradicable, with 
the increase of civilization, unless the Comforter 
were ever unweariably pursuing His gracious work 
of convincing the world of sin and of righteousness. 

We have seen in the last sermon, what great need 
there was, what great need there ever has been, and 
still is, that the Holy Spirit of God should come 
down from heaven, to convince the world of sin. 
We have seen how utterly impossible it was for this 
conviction to be wrought in the world, how impossi- 
ble it is for such a conviction to be wrought efficiently 
and sufliciently in any single heart, by any other 


THE CONVICTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 111 


power than that of the Spirit of God. The remarks 
just made may assist us in perceiving that there was 
no less need of the help of the Spirit, to convince 
the world of righteousness; and moreover that there 
is still the same need of His help, in order that this 
conviction may be graven in deep and living char- 
acters on each individual soul. We need the help 
of the Comforter to do this, because no other power 
can; and because, unless we are indeed convinced 
of righteousness, as well as of sin, the work of the 
Spirit will be imperfect and fruitless. For why are , 
we to be convinced of sin? why does the Holy 
Spirit vouchsafe to work this conviction in us? Not 
in order that we may continue in sin; but in order 
that we may flee from it, —in order that, discerning 
how hateful it is, how terrible, how deadly, we may 
flee from it with fear and loathing, and seek shelter 
in the blessed abode of righteousness. But the 
natural man knows of no such abode: he knows of 
no righteousness, of nothing really deserving the 
name. As on the one hand he has no distinct and 
full conception of sin, so on the other hand has he 
none of righteousness. He has no notion of the 
blackness of the one, no notion of the white, saintly 
purity of the other: all morality with him is of a 
dull, misty grey: his virtues and vices run one into 
the other; and it is often hard to know them apart. 
As his conception of sin seldom goes beyond the 
outward acts, the vices and crimes which spring from 
it, and takes little count even of these, until they are 
full grown ; so his righteousness also is for the most 
part made up of outward acts, and of forms and rites 


EZ THE CONVICTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 


and ceremonies, a thing of shreds and patches, full 
of holes and darns. 

The cause which makes man incapable of con- 
ceiving a true arid perfect idea of righteousness, has 
come before us already. A muddy pool, a cracked 
and spotted mirror will not reflect a distinct and pure 
image. That which is exalted so far beyond the 
reach of our nature, cannot have place in any of our 
thoughts. Man cannot even frame such an idea as 
an object of intellectual contemplation: much less 
ean he embody it as an object of love and worship 
for his heart. A slight glance at the chief facts pre- 


sented by the history of the world may suffice to - 


show that this is so. For suppose the case had been 
otherwise,— suppose that man had been able to 
form a distinct and lively idea of righteousness, — 
where should we look with the expectation of finding 
the personification of that idea? Surely we should 
look to the objects of religious worship, to the gods 
before whom men have bowed down. Surely we 
might reasonably imagine that the gods worshipped 
by each nation would express the most perfect idea 
it could form of righteousness. And what do we 
find? There is hardly a sin by which human nature 
has ever been degraded, but man in his blind mad- 
ness has given it a throne in the hearts of his gods. 
As though he had retained a dim consciousness that he 
had been made in the image of God, he inverted the 
truth in such manner, that each nation made its gods 
in its own image, investing them with its own attr 
butes, with its own weaknesses and passions and vices. 


Lust, and Fraud, and Hatred, and Envy, and Jeal- 


THE CONVICTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. ha 


ousy, and Bloodthirstiness were seated in huger 
dimensions among the inhabitants of heaven. These 
however, it may be objected, were the frenzies of 
rude, barbarous ages; and as each nation became 
more enlightened, it elevated and purified its concep- 
tions of its deities. ‘To a certain extent this is true. 
At the same time, in proportion as the idea of the 
Deity was refined and purified, it also lost its power, 
by losing its affinity to humanity, and fading away 
into an abstraction. Such is the God of Philosophy. 
Philosophy rejects the clue afforded by the declara- 
tion that man was made in the image of his Maker. 
Entirely indeed it cannot; for man cannot form a 
conception of any qualities, beyond those of which 
he finds the stamp in his own consciousness. But 
the qualities which Philosophy ascribes to its God, 
are mostly those which are the least peculiarly hu- 
man, those which man shares in no disproportionate 
degree with the rest of the creation, above all, power; 
to which it assigns certain attributes, mostly nega- 
tions of the conditions of time and space. In its re- 
coil from the gross anthropopathy of the vulgar 
notions, it falls into the vacuum of absolute apathy. 
Hence there is nothing in the God of Philosophy, 
any more than in the national and popular gods of 
the Heathens, that can convince the world of right- 
eousness. / 

Poetry, however, which culls the fairest flowers of 
human life, and brightens them still more with the 
glowing hues of the imagination,—has that no 
power to convince the world of righteousness? None. 
It is an ordinary remark, that, when any thing like 
the delineation of a perfect character is attempted in 


LAD 


114 THE CONVICTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 


poetry, it is vapid and lifeless. Tor it loses all re- 
semblance to human nature, and wanes away, like 
the God of Philosophy, into a skeleton clothed in 
shadowy abstractions. A tincture of evil would 
seem almost necessary to render men objects of sym- 
pathy. And this is the reason why the prince of 
philosophers excludes poets from his ideal republic; 
because the main sources of their interest le in the 
contentious passions of men; and because, instead 
-of convincing the world either of sin or of righteous- 
ness, they rather glorify many of men’s vices, and 
draw their readers away from the contemplation of 
the philosophic idea (s). 

Yet Philosophy itself has been utterly unable to 
convince the world of righteousness. . Nay, 1t has 
been utterly unable to convince itself thereof. From 
the very first indeed, as soon as man began to make 
his moral nature an object of reflection and examina- 
tion, Philosophy endeavored to lay hold on some 
idea of righteousness, and to claim the homage of 
mankind for it; and almost contemporaneous with 


this attempt on the part of Philosophy was that of 


Sophistry to stick up some carnal notion in the room 
of the spiritual idea; which notion, as being nearer 
akin to man’s carnal nature; has ever met with 
readier acceptance than the idea which approached 
nigher to the truth. One of these false and idola- 
trous notions, which, as. you will remember, was set 
up by some of the bolder sophists, and which the 
great Athenian philosopher laid on the rack of his 
searching dialectics, was, that Might is Right. This 
is the doctrine of righteousness which, one may sup- 
pose, would be proclaimed by a conclave of wild 


Ye oe 


THE CONVICTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 115 


beasts, the lion’s doctrine, and the tiger’s. Yet, amid 
the ever-revolving cycle of error, it has been promul- 
gated anew of late years. As though Christ had 
never lived, as though the Holy Spirit had never 
come down to convince the world of righteousness, 
it has been again asserted in our days that Might is 
Right. Do we then need that the son of Sophronis- 
cus should rise from his grave, to expose this mis- 
chievous fallacy.over again? Surely he has exposed 
it thoroughly, not for his own age merely, but for- 
ever. Surely, my friends, you, in this Christian land, 
in this seat of Christian learning, will none of you 
allow yourselves to be imposed on by so gross and 
glaring a delusion. This is indeed merely another 
expression of the same carnal: mind which would 
merge all the attributes of the Godhead in naked 
power. But we know that, though the strong wind 
‘rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks, 
yet the Lord was not in the strong wind. Nor was 
He in the earthquake: nor wa He in the fire. In 
what then was He? In the still small voice: and 
this is one of its holy utterances, — Right is Might. 
As sure as God liveth, as sure as the Holy One of 
Israel is the Lord of Hosts, the Almighty, Right is 
Might, and ever was, and ever shall be so. Holiness 
is might: Meekness is might: Patience is might: 
an faibity 3 is might: Seliedénial and Self-sacrifice is 
might: Faith is might: Love is might: every gift of 
the Spirit is might. The Cross was two pieces of 
dead wood; and a helpless, unresisting Man was 
nailed to it: yet it was mightier than the world, and 
triumphed, and will ever triumph over it. Heaven 
and earih shall pass away, but no pure, holy deed, or 


Fa 
a 
a ee 


116 THE CONVICTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 


word, or thought. On the other hand might, that 
which the children of earth call so, the strong wind, 
the earthquake, the fire, perishes through its own vio- 
lence, self-exhausted and self-consumed; as our age 
of the world has been allowed to witness in the most 
signal example. For many of us remember, and 
they who do not have heard from their fathers, how 
the mightiest man on earth, he who had girt himself 
with all might, except that of right, burst like a 
tempest-cloud, burnt himself out like a conflagration, 
and only left the scars of his ravages to mark where 
he had been. Who among you can look into an 
infant’s face, and not see a power in it mightier than 
all the armies of Attila or Napoleon? 

There is a kindred error however, my young friends, 
by which many at your age have been fascinated and 
blinded, against which therefore I would fain warn 
you. Yours is the age at which the intellect takes 
the greatest strides, at which its growth is the rapid- 
est. Your main business here is to cultivate it; and 
if you are diligent in availing yourselves of the 
means within your reach, you see its empire extend- 
ing almost daily before you. You are invited into a 
temple where the wise and bright-minded men of all 
ages and nations, the heroes in the world of thought, 
are seated around, uttering their sweetest and most 
potent words in your ears; and you are evermore re- 
minded how Nature has revealed herself to them, 
how Fame has crowned them, how mankind have 
mounted by the marble steps of their writings from 
ignorance to knowledge, from weakness to power. 
Thus an aptness to prize intellectual energy as the 
supreme object of human endeavor is one of the 


THE CONVICTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. ALi 


chief temptations whereby you, especially the more 
vigorous among you, are beset. Moreover the whole 
scheme of education in this place attaches a high, — 
let me say, an inordinately high value,—to such 
power; and several of the nobler tendencies of youth, 
its spirit of enterprise, its disinterestedness, its ideal- 
ism, conspire too readily therewith. Hence at your 
age men have ever been prone to regard intellectual 
eminence as the criterion of worth. Above all are 
they so prone in days like ours, when there is such a 
restless craving for novel excitement, and such a 
dearth of sound, stable, time-hallowed doctrines; so 
that the reverence, which of yore was paid to acknowl- 
edged truth, is now often at a loss for an object, un- 
less it can find one in some individual teacher. You 
will be tempted to regard genius, or what you may 
deem to be such, as an excuse, if not a warrant, for 
all manner of moral aberrations. You will be 
tempted to believe that genius is a law to itself, and 
to transfer this proposition from the intellectual re- 
gion, where alone it has any propriety, to the moral. 
In the intellectual world, it is true, the highest genius 
is a law to itself. But then bear in mind that.it must 
be a law to itself; whereas this assertion is mostly 
brought forward with a view of maintaining that 
genius is exempt from all law. As Love is the ful- 
filling of the law, not by neglecting, but by fulfilling 
it, — by entering into it, and animating and pervading 
it, and infusing a living power into its forms, not by 
standing aloft, and looking down or trampling on 
it,—so 1s Genius the fulfilling of the laws of the 
intellectual world, discerning them by an involuntary, 
and almost unconscious intuition, and embodying 


118 THE CONVICTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 


them in some creation of its own. In the moral 
order of things on the other hand genius is a perilous 
eminence, as precipitous as it is lofty. Being mostly 
united to acuter sensibilities, it receives all impres- 
sions, evil as well as good, more vividly ; and from a 
latent consciousness that it ought to penetrate to the 
core of things, it submits reluctantly to the restraint 
of conventional usages and established institutions. | 
Yet its superiority, instead of emancipating it from 
moral obligation, increases its responsibility. In this, 
as in other things, much will be required from him to 
whom much is given. The receiver of ten talents 
has to bring in ten more, and then to rule over ten 
cities. When a man is endowed with such a portion, 
one of the fairest and most precious, of earth’s riches, 
he is especially called upon to show forth his thank- 
fulness: for precious indeed it is, if rightly em- 
ployed; whereas, if it be squandered, if it be misap- 
plied and perverted, it sharpens our woe, and deep- 
ens our shame. ‘The possessors of eminent intellect- 
ual gifts are the more bound to employ their gifts 
diligently and faithfully in the service of the Giver, 
letting the light which he has set up within them 
shine abroad for His glory, and for the enlightening 
of their brethren. At the same time it behoves them 
to exercise peculiar watchfulness, lest they enter into 
temptation, lest they fall into the snares by which 
their path is surrounded, and which to them are still 
more dangerous than to others. Among the most 
miserable and abject of men, as numerous examples 
in the history of literature show, have been those 
who, having a certain allotment of talents, betrayed 
the trust reposed in them, prostituted their faculties 


THE CONVICTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 119 


to the service of the world, became venal, unprinci- 
pled, reckless, and gradually wasted away, until they 
were a mere wreck in soul and mind, —till their 
hearts were burnt out, and they retained nothing but 
the dregs of their former understandings. Many of 
these had set out with no ignoble purpose, not a few 
with something of a generous ardor: only, having 
been taught to believe that they might worthily de- 
vote themselves to the pursuit of fame, they naturally 
and unresistingly became a prey to vanity, and were 
tainted more and more with its sordidness, its jeal- 
ousies, its hypocrisies. At present, when new re- 
gions of thought are perpetually opening before you, 
you may fancy that so they will continue to open, 
and will ever fill you with fresh delight. You may 
deem that life cannot be spent more honorably, or 
more happily, than in striving to circumnavigate the 
intellectual globe. But this is not so. Mere specu- 
lation after a time loses its charm: we feel that it is 
unsatisfying: we find out that there is something 
within us beside the machinery of thought, and that, 
unless that other portion of our nature be allowed to 
act freely, the machinery of thought itself rusts and 
gets into disorder. Nor can the mere intellect curb 
and subdue the senses, which will often run riot and 
cast it to the ground, maimed and shattered. When 
the heart is sound and healthy indeed, when the soul 
is turned Godward,— when our minds, built upon 
the rock of an undoubting faith, endeavor to discover 
the manifestations of Him in whom they believe, ac- 
cording as He has chosen to manifest His will, 
whether in the outward world, or in mankind, in their 
nature or their destinies, — then such speculations 


120 THE CONVICTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 


will be a source of joy that will never fail, never lose 
its freshness. But only then. It is only the path of 
the righteous, whether it lies through thought or 
through action, that shines more and more unto the 
perfect day (‘r). 

The time will not allow me to examine the other 
manifold ways in which Philosophy has proved her 
incompetence to convince the world of righteous- 
ness. Nor indeed can it be requisite to do more 
than remind you of that system, which has been 
brought forward under various forms, evermore 
shooting forth new heads, as soon as one has been 
cut off, from the earliest times down to the latest, 
and which not only avows this incompetence, but 
makes a boast of it, absolutely denying that there is 
such a thing as righteousness attainable, or even 
conceivable by man, denying that there is any such 
thing as right and wrong inherently and essentially 
so, denying that man can do any thing or desire any 
thing as right or wrong in itself, or from any other 
motive than his own personal pleasure or advantage. 
This philosophy, which has tried to complete and 
perpetuate the work of the Fall, and has set its hand 
and seal to the deed whereby we were cut off from 
God, declaring that there is nothing in man whereby 
he can hold communion with God, or even desire 
such communion, — for he who sought it upon selfish 
grounds would be self-doomed to utter isolation, — 
this philosophy, which thus opposes the work of 
Christ, and tells men that the act of self-sacrifice, 
whereunto Christ has called them, is a fantastical 
dream, and a sheer impossibility, — has been taught, 
we know, even in this Christian land ; it has been 


THE CONVICTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. {3 


taught, alas, even in this University. There can 
hardly be a sadder proof of the antichristian spirit of 
the last century, than that this antichristian system 
of philosophy should have been proclaimed authori- 
tatively in a University, where the great body of the 
teachers must not only be members, but ministers of 
the Church. Blessed be God however! there are 
signs which bode that ere long it will be wholly 
driven out from hence. Among the changes which 
have taken place here of late years, —where much 
has been changed for the better, and something, it 
may be, for the worse,— none has filled my heart 
with such satisfaction, none seems to hold out such 
an assurance of good to our students, as that which 
promises that this University will again become a 
school of sound, high-principled, Christian moral 
philosophy. 

Nor can I discuss the characteristics of that Sys- 
tem, of nobler origin and tendency, which did indeed. 
attempt to do something in the way of convincing 
the world of righteousness, but which failed, as it 
could not avoid failing, for this among other reasons, 
that there was no true, living idea of righteousness 
made manifest to man, of which it might convince 
the world (uv). Its righteousness was a righteous- 
ness of the understanding. Therefore was it a 
righteousness of pride. For there is an aptness in 
the understanding to look down upon all things, as 
tools and instruments wherewith it may deal at will, 
as empty shells the chief use of which is to embody 
and clothe its truths: nay, it can hardly refrain from 
assuming that the act of understanding implies a 
superiority to that which is understood. Therefore. 

11 


Pita 


3 THE CONVICTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 


too was this righteousness a righteousness of insula- 
tion. ‘For the understanding has no sympathy, no fel- 
low-feeling with other existences: it cares solely for the 
forms of things, or rather for its own forms, which it 
discerns in the mirror they present to it: the business 
of the understanding is to look far off; the further, 
the more pleasure it takes in what it sees: that 
which is near and familiar, it disregards: it is heart- 
less and homeless. Therefore moreover was this 
righteousness a righteousness of lifeless abstractions, 
instead of living realities, cleaving to modes and 
words, rather than to principles, magnifying the _ 
formal in all things, to the disparagement of the 
essence and spirit. It was a self-righteousness, that 
is, no righteousness at all,—a righteousness in its 
own eyes, which can never be a righteousness in 
the eyes of God, —a righteousness in which the im- 
pure was to purify the impure, and the unjust to 
justify the unjust. And as it has been seen in all 
nations, and in the systems of all philosophers, that 
no human understanding, not even the etherial one 
of Plato, could discern the divine affinities in the 
affections, or set itself in harmony with them (v),— 
as the primary crack between the heart and the 
understanding, which ensued upon the usurpation 
of the latter, drawing man away to the love of 
knowledge as a power in himself, from the love of 
the Object of knowledge, has run through the whole 
human race, so that they have never been reunited, 
except by the atonement of Christ, — thus did this 
philosophy show its incapacity to convince the world 
of righteousness, by giving up the best parts of our 
nature as izretrievable into the hands of the enemy, 


THE CONVICTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 123 


throwing wife and children and brothers and sisters 
and friends, and the whole world, overboard, for the 
sake of preserving its own worthless self to float in 
desolate self-complacency on a plank in the Dead 
Sea. | 

Hence we perceive what need there was that the 
Spirit of God should undertake the task of convine- 
ing the world of righteousness. For no other power 
could. Philosophy could not: Poetry could not: 
Religion, in the corrupt forms in which it prevailed 
among the Heathens, could not: the aspect of life 
could not. They could not yield man the spectacle 
of Righteousness as a living, active reality, nor even 
as an idea for contemplation. Meanwhile the Law, 
sounding with its naked Thow shalt not, and knock- 
ing at the ears of those who were living in daily 
commission of the acts it forbade, was convincing the 
world of unrighteousness. This however was not 
enough to fulfil the merciful purpose of God. The 
righteous God loveth righteousness. He loves to 
behold His own image in His creatures. He made 
this earth to be the abode of Righteousness; and 
He was mercifully pleased to decree that it should 
not be given up to Sin, but that Righteousness 
should dwell upon it, Righteousness in its highest 
perfection, even His own Righteousness, pure and 
holy and without spot. Therefore this was the 
second work of the Comforter. As He came to con- 
vince the world of sin, because no other power could, 
so did He come to convince the world of righteous- 
ness, because this too was a work which He alone 
could accomplish. 

When the Comforter is come, He will convince the 


124 THE CONVICTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 


world of righteousness. The sin, of which the Com- 
forters was to convince the world, was the sin of 
want of faith, of not believing in Christ. Accord- 
ingly He was to convince the world of its own sin. 
Was He also to convince the world of its own 
righteousness ? That could not be. Where sin is, 
righteousness is not, at least no true, pure, genuine 
righteousness; and the Comforter can only convince 
of the truth. As the sin of the world was its want 
of faith, so on the other hand righteousness can only 
come to it through faith; and the reason why the 
world from the beginning has been so barren of 
righteousness is no other than this, that it has not 
been animated by a strong, living principle of faith. 
Want of faith, we have seen, is the great sin of 
the world, and the one prime source and fountain- 
head of all other sins. This is the cankerworm, 
which has been gnawing at the heart of the world, 
ever since our first parents gave ear to the voice of 
the Tempter, beguiling them to withdraw their faith 
from the word of God, and to place it in the deceit- 
ful shows of the senses: and hence it is, by reason 
of our want of faith, by reason of this cankerworm 
gnawing at our heart, that all our blossoms have 
been so pale and blighted, and all our leaves so 
shrivelled. We have seldom strength to produce 
what is fair in itself, much less what shall be vigor- 
ous enough to resist the blasts of temptation. In 
every age of the world, under all the forms of social 
life, and all the gradations of culture, this has been 
the great sin of mankind. It was so before the 
coming of Christ. Mankind did not believe in God. 
They did not believe in His power and wisdom as 


ee oe. 


THE CONVICTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 125 
set forth in the visible works of the Creation. "When 
the heavens declared His glory, men turned a deaf 
ear to their tale. Although the firmament showed 
His handiwork, they could not see the finger of God 
there. Nor would man believe in the image of God, 
in which he himself was made. He would not be- 
lieve in the oracles of God, when his conscience 
uttered them within him. He had so dishgured that 
image, and had confounded those oracles with so 
many discordant sounds, that he was utterly unable 
to separate the true from the false, and to recognize 
each as that which it was. And when the Son of 
God came upon earth with His fan in His hand to 
do this work for man, to declare the truth in its purity, 
and to manifest the perfect Image of God, still the 
world would not believe in Him. Still the world 
eried, This is not God... this is not our God... 
this is not such a God as we have fashioned for our- 
selves, of gold and jewels, of lightning and thunder, 
of lust and blood. This God has none of the spirit of ° 
agod. He is so meek, so gentle, so patient, so hum- 
ble, so mild, so forgiving, so merciful... there is not 
a great man upon earth who would not be ashamed to 
be like Him. This was the sin of the world, when 
Christ was walking upon earth. They would not 
believe in Him. They would not believe that He 
was the Incarnate Son of God. They would not 
believe that the Wisdom and the Love of God had 
become Flesh in Him. They would not believe 
that the Maker of the Universe would appear in the 
form of a Servant. They would not believe that 
the Lord of all Truth and Holiness would shed His 
blood for the sins of mankind. So utterly estranged 


Lai 


126 THE CONVICTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 


were they from the idea of righteousness, that, when 
the Sun of Righteousness was showing forth His 
glory in the midst of them, they knew him not, but 
denied and blasphemed Him, imputing His divine 
acts to the powers of evil. They listened to the cor- 
rupt imaginations of their own hearts, which had 
framed an image of God so totally different from 
the true Image made manifest in the life of Christ ; 
and obstinately refusing to believe in Him, they 
plunged into the nethermost chasm of crime, and 
crucified the Lord, in whom they would not believe. 

And as want of faith was the sin of the world 
before the coming of Christ, a sin the parent of all 
other sins, and undermining the very desire, defacing 
the very conception of righteousness,—as it was 
the sin of the world during the life of Christ, con- 
summating itself in the attempt to destroy the great . 
Object of Faith, to the end that it might wallow 
undisturbed in all manner of falsehood, in the false- 
hoods of sense and selfishness, in the falsehoods of 
the passions and appetites, in the falsehoods of cu- 
pidity and ambition, in the falsehoods of supersti- 
tion and idolatry, in the falsehoods of hypocrisy and 
formal observances, — so has want of faith still been 
the sin of the world ever since Christ went up into 
heaven. Still the world has not believed in Christ: 
still at this day it does not, will not believe in Him. 
Stil at this day this is the great sin of mankind: 
and by reason of this sin all their other sins abide 
with them, and cleave to them, and cannot be driven 
out of them. And what shall we say of ourselves, 
brethren? Is this our sin, or no? Can we assert 
that we are altogether free from it? that we do in- 


THE CONVICTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. I Fe 


deed believe in Christ? No human judge can pro- 
nounce. But there is One who can, even He who 
reads the heart. He knows whether we believe in 
Christ, or no. ‘To man the only evidence is, do we 
live by that faith? He who really believes in Christ 
must needs live in that faith, and by that faith; and 
therefore he will not live in the service of sin, but in 
the service of righteousness. 

Here a question arises, how comes it that so large 
a part of the Christian world are still lying in the 
bondage of unbelief? in the bondage of that unbe- 
lief which makes them the slaves of sin? How 
comes it that the world does not burst the chains of 
this bondage, and clothe itself with the wings of 
faith, and mount through the pure region of right- 
eousness, rejoicing in its freedom, to the foot of that 
throne where Christ is sitting at the right hand of 
God? How comes it,—may I not ask, brethren, — 
how comes it that, even among us who have been 
baptized into the name of Christ, among us who 
meet together week after week and day after day to 
worship the Father in His house, — among us who 
have so‘often been called to have our souls refreshed 
and strengthened by His blessed Body and Blood, — 
how comes it that even among us there are so many, 
who...start not at the word... yes, start, ye to 
whom it may apply! and O that your hearts would 
indeed start once for all out of their fleshly sockets! 
... how comes it that even among us there are so 
many, who do not believe in Christ, who have no 
real, living, practical faith in Him,—so many there- 
fore, who are still steeped in their sins, who are still 
floundering helplessly about in the midst of their 


1238 THE CONVICTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 


sins, even as though Christ had never come to re- 
deem them? ‘The reason of all this is, that the 
world, —that we,— have turned away from the 
Comforter, when He has come to convince us of the 
sin of not believing in Christ. Our belief in Christ, 
such as itis, has not been wrought in us by the 
Spirit of God. We believe in Christ, because our 
parents taught us to believe in Him, because it is 
our national faith, because we have been bred up in 
it from our childhood, because our understandings 
have been persuaded of His divine power by the 
wonderful miracles which He wrought. But what 
is the value of such faith, if it be no more than this? 
Will it take away our sins? will it clothe us in the 
armor of righteousness? ‘This is a question we can 
easily answer, at least if 1t be put to us in another 
shape. Does it take away our sins? does it soften 
and fertilize our hearts, so that they bring forth the 
fruits of righteousness? Surely they who are con- 
scious of having nothing beyond this traditional, 
conventional, historical faith, must answer, Vo; no 
more than the water in a bucket will refresh the 
whole country when parched with a long drouth. 
The water which is to refresh a land parched with 
drouth, must come from above. The faith which is 
to refresh and renew a soul dry and parched through 
a long continuance in sin, must come from above 
also. Until we have been convinced of the sin of 
unbelief by the Spirit, we shall never know the hal- 
lowing power of faith. Until we. are convinced of 
sin, for not believing in Christ, we cannot be con- 
vinced of righteousness, because Christ is gone to 
the Father. 


THE CONVICTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 129 


As the sin, of which the Comforter came to con- 
vince the world, is of a totally different kind from 
every thing that the world calls sin, 
which the world, so long as it was left to itself, never 
dreamt of as such, nor does any heart, left to itself, 
so regard it, — while yet it is the one great all-in-all 
of sin, the sin by which men are cut off and utterly 
estranged from God, the sin through which they 
grow downward toward hell, instead of growing up- 
ward toward heaven, —so on the other hand is the 
righteousness, of which the Comforter came to con- 
vince the world, totally different in kind from every 
thing that the world accounts righteousness, —a 
righteousness such as the world in the highest rap- 
tures of its imagination never dreamt of, a righteous- 
ness moreover by which the effect of sin is done 
away, and man, hitherto cut off and estranged from 
God, is reunited and set at one with Him. The 
Comforter will convince the world of righteousness, 
our Lord says, because Igo to the Father, and ye see 
Meno more. In these words we perceive what is \ 
the righteousness, of which the Comforter came to 
convince the world. Not of its own righteousness: - 
one might as fitly convince a cavern at midnight of 
light. The Comforter is the Spirit of Truth, and 
can only convince of the truth. But the world’s 


as it is a sin 


righteousness is a lie, hollow as a whited sepulchre, 
tawdry as a puppet in a show. Different opinions 
have been maintained on the question, of whose 
righteousness the Comforter was to convince the 
world (w); but to my own mind the words which 
follow seem to settle the point: He will convince the 
world of righteousness, because I go to the Lather. 


130 THE CONVICTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 


Of whose righteousness? Not of the world’s as- 
suredly. Christ’s going to the Father could no way 
be a proof of the righteousness of the world. On 
the contrary it was the fullest, completest, most 
damnatory of all proofs of the world’s unrighteous- 
ness and iniquity. It was the proof, that Him, whom 
the world condemned, God justified,—that the 
Stone, which the builders rejected, God made the 


Headstone of the corner,—that Him, whom the 


world had lifted up on high on a cross of shame, 
God lifted up on high to a throne of glory in the 
heavens, — that Him, whom the world cast out, nail- 
ing Him between two thieves, God took to Himself, 
and set Him in the heavenly places far above all 
principality and power, — yea, took Him up to Him- 
self, into the Unity of His Eternal Godhead, between 
Himself and his Holy Spirit. Never was the right- 
eousness of the world so confounded and set at 
nought, as when Christ went to the Father, when 
He, to whom Barabbas was preferred, was thus 
shown to be the beloved Son and the perfect Image 
of the Allholy, Allrighteous God. 

But while Christ’s going to the Father was a proof 
of the unrighteousness and desperate wickedness of 
the world, it was also a proof of righteousness, 
namely of His own pure and perfect and _ spotless 
righteousness. It was a proof that He was the Holy 
One who could not see corruption. . It was a proof 
that He could not possibly be holden by death, any 
more than it would be possible to hold the sun by a 
chain of darkness; and therefore that, as Death, the 
ghastly shadow which ever follows inseparably at 
the heels of Sin, fled from His presence, He must 


Or ie of” he 


THE CONVICTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. TSE 


needs be also without sin. It was a proof that, while 
the world desired a murderer to be granted to them, 
He whom they denied was the Holy One and the 
Just. The effect of sin from the beginning, the effect 
which it always had wrought and always must work, 
was to cut man off from God, to throw a great gulf 
between man and God, which no man, continuing 
in the weakness and under the bondage of sin, can 
ever pass over. It had made man blind to the sight 
of God, and deaf to the voice of God. It had 
driven him out from the garden of Eden, that is, 
from the presence of God: for none but the pure in 
heart can see God; none but the righteous can dwell 
with God. Therefore, when Christ went to His 
Father, when He was taken up into heaven to live in 
the bosom of God, this of itself was a proof that 
He, who was thus exalted, must have fulfilled all 
righteousness ; that His righteousness was not like 
the righteousness of men, speckled and spotted and 
covered with scratches and rents, like a sheet of old 
blotting-paper, but pure, and without stain or spot. 
This then was the righteousness, of which the Com- 
forter came to convince the world, the righteousness 
of Him in whom the world would not believe, of 
Him whom the world had crucified. Pilate had found 
no fault in Him; yet Pilate had delivered Him up to 
be crucified. The Jews had been unable to charge 
Him with any fault: yet the Jews had crucified Him. 
They saw nothing but the hideous mists and phan- 
toms of their own passions, of their own envy and 
hatred and malice; they clothed Jesus in the dark 
hues of those passions; and then they nailed Him to 
the cross. Not knowing what righteousness was, 


132 THE CONVICTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 


they could not recognize it when it came and stood 
in a visible form before them. Loving unrighteous- 
ness rather than righteousness, they tried to quench 
the light of righteousness, and could not find rest 
until they trusted they had built up a thick firma- 
ment of darkness around them, and extinguished the 
heavenly ray which God had sent through the dark- 
ness to scatter it. 3 | 
Hence, because the world thus obstinately refused 
to believe in the righteousness of Christ, was it need- 
ful that the Comforter should come to convince the 
world thereof; so that He might be declared with 
power to be the Son of God, according to the Spirtt of 
Holiness, which was thus manifested to be in Him, 
by His resurrection from the dead; and that this de- 
claration might be made known {¢o all nations, to 
bring them to the obedience of faith in Mis name. 
Here however the same question crosses us, which 
crossed us at the end of the last sermon: how could 
He, who came to convince the world of the righteous- 
ness of Christ, be rightly called the Comforter, at 
least with reference to this portion of His work? At 
other times, when exercising His power for other 
purposes, He might show Himself to be a Comforter. 
But what comfort could there be in His convincing 
the world of that, which was the sure judicial proof 
of the unutterable crime it had been guilty of? At 
first thought it would seem as if the conviction of 
Christ’s righteousness could only bring shame and 
confusion on those by whom He was crucified. And 
even to us,—although we were not present in the 
body at His crucifixion, and so far were not guilty 
of it,— although we did not lift up our voices and 


So 


THE CONVICTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 138 


join in the murderous cry of the Jews, — still, if the 
righteousness of Christ were nothing more than His 
own righteousness, the contemplation of such a per- 
fect pattern of all that is excellent and pure and holy 
would rather seem fitted to cast-us down in utter 
hopelessness, than to comfort us, at least at the mo- 
ment when the conviction of our own exceeding sin- 
fulness has just been brought home in full force to 
our souls. It might rather tempt us to exclaim with 
Peter, Depart from us; for we are sinful men, O 
Lord. Nevertheless, as our Lord tells us, it is indeed 
the Comforter, — nor is the name used here without 
its appropriate force, — who convinces us of the 
righteousness of Christ. For why? Christ’s right- 
eousness is also our righteousness, if we will cast 
away the sin of not believing in Him, and receive 
His righteousness as our own by faith. He is the 
Lord our Righteousness. He did not come down to 
earth to lead a holy and righteous life for His own 
sake. He was all Holiness and all Righteousness 
from the beginning, yea, from all eternity, dwelling 
in the bosom of the Father, full of grace and truth. 
But He came down to earth to lead a holy and 
righteous life for our sakes, in order that we might 
become sharers in His Righteousness, and that so He 
might raise us along with himself to His Father and 
ours. It was for us that He was born: for us He 
went about doing good patiently and unweariedly in 
spite of hatred and scorn and persecution: for us He 
bore all the hardships and crosses of life: it was for 
us that He bowed His all-holy neck, and entered 
through the gates of time and space into the form of 
weak and frail humanity: for us He submitted to be 


12 


134 THE CONVICTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 


tempted: for us He overcame sin: for us He allowed 
the shadow of death to flit over His eternal spirit: 
for us He burst the bonds of death, and rose again 
from the grave, for our justification, for our righteous- 
ness, that we might believe in Him, and might be ae 
come righteous thereby: it was for us too that He | 
went up openly to His Father, and sent His Holy 
Spirit to convince us of His: righteousness: for us 
also does He ever’ sit, the Sun of Righteousness, in 
the heavens. When the sun rises to convince the 
world of light, he does not keep his light to himself: 
he does not journey through the sky merely to con- 
vince the world that he himself is light. He sheds 
his light abroad on all that will unfold themselves to 
receive it: he pours it into them, that they may have 
it in themselves, and manifest it to each other, and 
behold it in each other. So too does the Sun of 
Righteousness. His Righteousness spreads from the 
east to the west: it fills the heavens, and covers the 
earth. On all who will open their hearts to receive 
it, He sheds it. For their sakes He gained it; and 
He pours it out abundantly upon them. 

Therefore is the Spirit, who convinces the world 
of the righteousness of Christ, most truly called the 
Comforter. In convincing us of sin, we saw, He 
convinces us that we are dead in trespasses and sins, 
— dead, so that we lie in them as in a grave, utterly 
unable to raise ourselves out of them, —so that our 
souls, were they left to themselves, would rot, and 
crumble and fall to pieces. Hence this conviction, 
if it stood alone, would be full of sorrow and dis- 
may. Ifthe Spirit merely convinced us of our sin- 
ful acts, of our vices, of our crimes, He would not 


THE CONVICTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 135 


be the Comforter. For they have so coiled round 
every part of our being, and mixed themselves up 
with our very heart’s blood, that we cannot shake 
them, or strip them, or even flay them off But in 
convincing us that our prime sin, the root and spring 
of all our sins, is want of faith, He lets in a gleam 
of light; He enables us to perceive an outlet; He 
kindles a hope in us that, if we can but believe, the 
sinfulness of our nature may be subdued. We are 
no longer doomed to a vain struggle between a 
conscience muttering more and more faintly, Sin not, 
and a carnal heart shouting more and more imperi- 
ously, J will sin. We are taught that there is One 
who will help us through this struggle, if we will 
but believe in Him, even the Onlybegotten Son of 
God, who dwelt upon earth for the very purpose of 
breathing a new life of faith into us, of setting a liv- 
ing Object of faith before us; so that in every need 
and peril, whithersoever the chances of the world 
may waft us, we shall see God, not afar off in the 
heavens, in the clouds of speculation, or the dim 
twilight of tradition, but close by our side, as our 
Example, our Guide, our Friend, our Brother, our 
Saviour and Redeemer; that we shall know God, 
not merely as a Lawgiver, commanding us to over- 
come sin, but as a Pattern showing us that it can be 
overcome, and how, and as a mighty Helper ever 
ready to enable us to overcome it. In like manner, 
if the conviction of righteousness which the Spirit 
works in us were merely the conviction of God’s 
righteousness, or of Christ’s, we could only fall to 
the ground with awestruck, palsied hearts : we could 
no more venture to look upon Christ, than the naked 


136 THE CONVICTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 


eye can look upon the sun. But when we are 
thoroughly convinced that Christ’s righteousness 1s 
our righteousness, the righteousness which He pur- 
poses to bestow upon mankind,—that He came to 
fulfil all righteousness, not for His own sake, but for 
ours, in order that He might give us all that we lack 
out of his exceeding abundance,—then indeed a 
bright ray of joy and comfort darts through the 
heart, startling the frostbound waters out of their 
yearlong sleep. ‘Then the soul, which before was as 
a wilderness and a solitary place, solitary, because 
God was far from it, — yea, the barren desert of the 
heart rejoices and blossoms like the rose. All its 
hidden powers, all its suppressed feelings, so long 


smothered by the unresisted blasts of the world, . 


unfold like the roseleaves before the Sun of Right- 
eousness; and each and all are filled and transpierced 
with his gladdening, beautifying light. 

In order however that this may be fulfilled in us, 
the conviction of Christ’s righteousness must indeed 
be wrought in us by the Spirit of God. We must 
be thoroughly convinced that He is our Righteous- 
ness, our only Righteousness. It is not enough to 
believe that He was a very good and holy man. 
We believe that many men have been good and 
holy, that Noah was so, that Abraham was) so, that 
Joseph was so, that St. John was so, that St. Paul 
was so. But their righteousness is of no avail to 
us: it cannot help us out of our sins. Therefore 
our conviction of Christ’s righteousness must be of a 
wholly different kind from our belief in the righteous- 
ness of any other man. On the other hand it must 
be of a different kind from our conviction of the 


ee ee 


THE CONVICTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 137 


righteousness or justice of God: for this, coming 
upon the conviction of our sins, would merely affix 
the death-warrant to the condemnation which our 
conscience pronounces against us. Whereas the 
belief in the righteousness of Christ is the means 
by which we are to be raised out of our sins, and to 
receive justification in the sight of God. Hence 
these two works of the Comforter, the conviction of 
our own sins, and the conviction of Christ’s right- 
eousness, go one along with the other, and cannot be 
divorced or parted, neither being accomplishable 
without the other. For it is by the contrast of 
Christ’s righteousness that we are enabled most 
clearly to discern our own all-pervading sinfulness ; 
and it is by the conviction of our own sinfulness 
that we are brought to recognize the divine perfec- 
tion, and our own need, of the righteousness of 
Christ. In some souls one work may seem to be 
prior, in others the other. According as we turn our 
eyes, the light may seem to rush upon the darkness, 
or the darkness to fly before the light; while the 
two operations are in fact coinstantaneous. But 
whichever conviction may have been, or have come 
forward into consciousness as the earliest In any 
particular case, each must be continually enlivening 
and strengthening the other. There are those who 
are sinking like Luther under a crushing sense of 
sin, before the assurance of the forgiveness obtained 
by the righteousness of Christ dawns upon them, 
There are those to whom Christ will manifest Him- 
self in the first instance, as He did to St. Paul, in 
His heavenly glory. But in either case, where the 
work is the work of the Comforter, the second con- 
12* 


gent tttpe 


138 THE CONVICTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 


viction will follow close upon the first. The convic- 
tion of sin will be followed by the conviction of the 
forgiveness which our Allrighteous Saviour has pro- 
cured for us; which latter conviction alone turns the 
former into a wholesome discipline of humility: and 
when Christ vouchsafes to arouse us by manifesting 
Himself in His glory, it is still as He whom we have 
persecuted by our sins. The conviction of Christ’s 
righteousness will ever be one of the chief means 
employed by the Comforter to bring us to a con- 
viction of our sinfulness; while on the other hand it 
is absolutely necessary that we should be brought to 
this conviction of our sinfulness, before we can dis- 
cern our need of a righteousness, which is not our 
own, but is to descend upon us from above. So 
long as aman is not convinced of sin, of his own 
sinfulness, irremediable by any efforts of his own, — 


so long as he is not convinced that he has no real. 


righteousness in himself, that he is not what he 
ought to be, nay, that he is totally unlike what he 


ought to be,—so long as he is content to live the — 


common, amphibious, half and half life of the world, 
which is neither one thing nor the other, a miserable 
border-land between good and evil—so long as he 
goes on staggering to and fro between opposite sins, 
neither hot nor cold, believing with his lips, and 
unbelieving in his heart, doing right for the sake of 
the world, wearing the garb of outward decency and 
a self-satisfied honesty or honorableness, — so long he 
can never be really convinced of the righteousness of 
Christ. We must feel that without Him we can do 
nothing; that through our sins we have cast our- 
selves out from the presence of God; and that of 


rie 


Cs | ee -—e e 


THE CONVICTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 139 


ourselves we can no more return into His presence, 
than we can fly up and bathe in the fountains of 
light which are ever welling from the heart of the 
sun: we must feel that the Law is placed, like the 
flaming sword at the East of the Garden of Eden, 
turning every way, writing its sentence of condemna- 
tion against every deed and word that issues from 
the heart of man, and thus keeping the way of the 
Tree of Life: we must feel that we neither have 
nor can have any righteousness of ourselves to jus- 
tify ourselves: then alone shall we be brought to 
yearn for, then alone shall we indeed be convinced 
by the Comforter of the righteousness of Christ. 
And how are we to become partakers of that 
righteousness? Christ is ready, is desirous to be- 
stow it upon all; but how are we to receive it? 
Even as we receive every other heavenly gift, by 
faith. The Comforter shall convince the world of 
righteousness, says our Lord, because I go to the 
Father, and ye see Me no more. In that He went to 
the Father, He gave the most certain demonstration 
of His righteousness. In that we see Him no more, 
He renders it easier for us to make His righteous- 
ness ours. Were He still living upon earth, were 
He walking about before our eyes, it would not be 
so. It was not so with His brethren: they did not 
believe in Him. It was not so with His chosen 
apostles: so long as He continued present with 
them in the body, they did not receive Him into 
their souls; they did not put on His righteousness. 
Therefore was it expedient for them, as we have 
already seen, that He should go away. lor, so long 


<pcpserenreme 


140 THE CONVICTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 


as he continued with them, they lived by sight, 
rather than by faith; and sight disturbs faith, and 
shakes it, and weakens it. Sight, as belonging to 
the world of sense, partakes its frailties and imper- 
fections. To put forth all its power, faith must be 
purely and wholly faith. It is so even with the 
human objects of our faith and love. So long as 
they continue in the flesh, our faith in them, our 
love for them is imperfect. The infirmities of the 
flesh cleave to it. Their corruption must put on 
incorruption, — they must be transfigured by death, 
—they must pass away from this world of sight, — 
we must see them no more:—then may our faith 
and love toward them become pure and holy and 
heavenly and imperishable. When our love springs 
from the root of faith, then alone may it hope to blos- 
som through eternity. In like manner, when our 
righteousness springs from the root of faith, then 
will it flourish in the courts of the temple of God. 
For what is our righteousness, when it comes to 
us through faith? It is not ours, but Christ’s: and 
every thing that is Christ’s is well pleasing in the 
eyes of God. By faith we pass out of this world of 
sense. By faith we put off our carnal nature, and 
put on a new spiritual nature, through which we 
shall not be found naked. By faith we receive the 
power to cast away our sins, and to live a life of 
holiness and love. Through faith, giving ear to the 
voice of the Comforter, the evil spirit is driven out 
of us, as he was driven by the harp of David out of 
Saul. ‘Through faith we are lifted out of ourselves. 
Through faith we cease to be specks of foam, dashed 


aS etait 


THE CONVICTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 141 


along the furrows of the homeless wave. Through 
faith we become members of the everlasting body 
of Christ; the Spirit of Christ passes into us; and 
thus in the fulness of time we too shall go with Him 
to His Father, 


“SERMON TV. 


THE CONVICTION OF JUDGMENT. 


WHEN THE COMFORTER IS COME, HE WILL CONVINCE THE WORLD OF 
SIN, AND OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND OF JUDGMENT; OF JUDGMENT, 
BECAUSE THE PRINCE OF THIS WORLD Is JUDGED. — John xvi. 8, 11. 


We have considered the first two parts of the 
threefold work of the Comforter, — the conviction of 
sin, which He was to produce in a world lying 
blindly and recklessly in sin, — and the conviction of © 
righteousness, which He was to awaken, by opening 
the eyes of that world to behold the righteousness of 
the Lord it had crucified,—the conviction of the 
world’s sin, and of Christ’s righteousness. ‘These 
two acts, we have seen, as wrought in the world, are 
essentially coincident; the conviction of sin being 
the instantaneous result from the manifestation of 
the righteousness of Christ, even as the rising of the 
light manifests the darkness. Were there no dark- 
ness, the light would only manifest itself: but, as the 
world, at the time when the Comforter was sent to 
bring it to the knowledge of the truth, was lying 
wholly under thick darkness, the effect which the 
dawning light of the Sun of Righteousness was to 
produce upon it, could not be other in the first in- 


THE CONVICTION OF JUDGMENT. 143 


stance than the conviction of the darkness under 
which it was lying. It was to be convinced of sin, 
of the sinfulness which ran through all its thoughts 
and feelings, and with which the very notions it had 
framed of any thing approaching to righteousness 
were tainted, before it could adequately understand 
the beauty and the glory of that perfect righteous- 
ness which the Son of God had manifested upon 
earth. In these days on the other hand, when we are 
brought into the Church of Christ in our infancy,* — 
when the name of Jesus is one of the first words the 
child is taught to utter, — when our earliest lessons 
of obedience and patience and meekness and purity 
and mercy and love are taken from the story of His 
life, — when we are bred up in the constant habit of 
joining the congregation of our brethren to offer up 
our prayers to God as His children, reconciled to 
Him through the righteousness of His Onlybegotton 
Son, — when, whithersoever we go, we find the name 
of Christ written on every ancient institution, and 
the house of God and of His Christ rising out of 
every town and every hamlet, to bear our hearts 
“ Above the smoke and stir of this dim spot, Which 
men call earth,” — now, when, if we cast our eyes 
over the map of the earth, we see at once that Christ 
is the recognized Lord of every nation eminent in 
knowledge and in power,—it might be supposed 
that the first impression which would be graven on 
every youthful heart, would be the image of Christ, 
of the Lord its Righteousness; and that so, by de- 
grees, as its consciousness became livelier and more 


* See Preface to American Edition. 


144 THE CONVICTION OF JUDGMENT. 


distinct, it would be taught by the contrast of this 
glorious image to feel its own unworthiness and sin- 
fulness. Nor do I doubt that there are many, the 
growth of whose spiritual life does in fact proceed in 
this calmer, more orderly manner, — many, especially 
in that sex which is less exposed to the assault of the 
world’s tumultuous temptations, who are led by the 
Spirit of God from grace to grace, even as a child is 
led by its mother, and who are only allowed to fall, 
as a child falls, lightly, hurting itself but little, just 
enough to serve for a warning, and soon lifted up 
again. Idoubt not that there are many children of 
godly parents, on whose souls the conviction of 
Christ’s righteousness is stamped early, becoming 
more and more distinct and bright as they advance 
in years, and gradually impressing them with the 
conviction of their own sinfulness. Only, until it. 
has done this, until we are indeed convinced of sin, 
our conviction of Christ’s righteousness can never be 
what it ought to be. We cannot feel its divine, ex- 
clusive perfection. We cannot feel how totally 
different it is from the righteousness of all the other 
children of men, — how opposite in its principles and 
aims to that virtue which the natural man, when 
highly gifted and favorably circumstanced, will some- 
times admire and seek after,— how immeasura- 
bly superior to what has ever been found even in the 
holiest of His saints. Nor, until we are convinced of 
sin, can we feel our own need of being justified by the 
righteousness of Christ. We cannot understand 
what is most excellent and wonderful in it, that it 
was not earned for Himself, but for us, in order that 
He might have wherewith to clothe a race shivering 


THE CONVICTION OF JUDGMENT. 145 


and pining in the nakedness of their sins. Hence we 
shall merely endeavor to imitate it, as we might imi- 
tate the actions of any other great and good man, as 
something lying within our reach, attainable by our 
own efforts. We shall not seek it as a gift, as some- 
thing that we cannot possess except through the 
bountiful mercy of its sole Possessor. We shall not 
fall down in humble and contrite prayer, yearning 
to have our hearts and souls renewed and strength- 
ened, as alone they can be, by a participation in His 
Spirit. 

But though there may be examples in which a 
Christian life is undisturbed by violent shocks, and 
rises to its maturity without going through any con- 
vulsive crisis, — though it may now and then flow 
onward, fed and increased, like a river, by the whole 
country it has to pass through, and never compelled 
to burst its way among the rocks of a rapid, or to 
plunge down at once into a different level, — and. 
though the number of such examples would doubt- 
less be greatly enlarged, if a higher spirit of sanctity 
were to spread through our domestic life, and to ani- 
mate our domestic education, and if at our schools 
and universities it were borne more steadily in mind 
that the main business of Christian education is to! 
train up the children of God for their inheritance in. 
the Kingdom of Heaven, — yet, according to the 
present course of the world, and the present consti- 
tution and character of society, such persons at the 
utmost cannot amount to more than a very small mi- 
nority. Most of you will bear me witness that in the 
great majority of cases the world still rushes with 
overwhelming force upon the soul, and sweeps it 


13 


146 THE CONVICTION OF JUDGMENT. 


away out of its baptismal purity,” and dashes 1t to 
and fro with the swelling of its riotous waves. Most 
of you will be ready to confess that the righteousness 
of Christ has not shone with a never-waning, ever- 
waxing light upon your souls from your chilhood up- 
ward, —that it has often been hid from you by the 
mists and vapors of the earth,—that it had no 
place in the mimic heaven, which you patched up 
for yourselves out of the blossoms and jewels and 
spangles of this world, and beneath which you lulled 
yourselves to sleep with sweet songs of your own 
graces and virtues. Nay, are there not those amongst 
you, who, if you were to lay bare your hearts, would 
have to avow that you have turned wilfully away 
from Christ and His righteousness, — that you have 
driven the thought of it out of your minds, — that 
you have closed your ears against Him, when He 
has called upon you to acknowledge your want of it, 
and to receive a full supply for that and every other 
want from Him? Are there not those who have 
shrunk away from Him into some of the dark caverns 
of sin, lest His light should dazzle and blind, lest His 
voice should trouble and scare them? Many of you, 
I feel assured, would be constrained to acknowledge 
that there have been long periods of your life, during 
which you have never seen, never contemplated, 
never meditated upon the righteousness of Christ, — 
during which you have thought of no other righteous- 
ness, have cared for no other righteousness, have 
aimed at no other righteousness, than that which is 
fair and grand in the eyes of the world? And how 


* See Preface to American Edition. 


ee 


THE CONVICTION OF JUDGMENT, 147 


does the case stand now, brethren? Do you indeed 
all discern the righteousness of Christ in its heavenly 
perfection and beatific glory? Do you look up to it, 
and gaze upon it with every eye of your heart and 
soul and mind, and strive after it, strive to make it 
yours, with all your strength, with ihe strength of un- 
ceasing watchfulness against temptation, with the 
strength of a resolute resistance to evil, with the 
strength of a patient perseverance in well doing, with 
the strength of humble, penitent, earnest, unweari- 
able prayer? Is this the one great object of your 
desires and aspirations and endeavors, the beacon 
that draws and guides you onward, and the tent that 
shelters and protects you? Are you longing, seek- 
ing, striving to fly for refuge from the sins of the 
world beneath the righteousness of Christ? Are you 
indeed hungering and thirsting after this righteous- 
ness? Or have you bowed down your souls to the 
world, and given up your hearts to its service? with 
no higher ambition, than to snatch all you can of the 
largess which the world is ever and anon flinging 
abroad among the crowd of her slaves, in order to 
cheer and kindle them up for a moment, and to keep 
them from fainting and flagging? Is this your high- 
est aim, to look well in the eyes of the world, to 
gain worldly power, worldly riches, worldly distine- 
tion, worldly honor, worldly esteem, worldly right- 
eousness? Surely, brethren, if this be our case, if 
this be the case with any of us,——and may we not 
reasonably fear that it is the case with far too many? 
let us each ask whether it be with ourselves ;— for, 
if it be, we must need to be convinced of judgment; 


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148 THE CONVICTION OF JUDGMENT. 


we must grievously need a living conviction that the 


Prince of this world has been judged. 


This is the third great work of the Comforter ; 
who, according to our Lord’s declaration, was not 


only to convince the world of sin and of righteous- 
i ness, but also of judgment. We have seen in the 


former sermons, how absolutely necessary it was, 
that, if the world was indeed to be convinced of sin 
and of righteousness, the Holy Spirit of God should 
vouchsafe to undertake the work of bringing the 


-~world to that conviction. We have seen how utter- 


ly inefficient all other powers are to engrave this con- 
viction on the heart of the world; how every other 
attempt so to engrave it was like carving characters 
in the sand, which the next wave of temptation 
covered and effaced; how it was requisite that the 
world should have a new heart and a new spirit, 
even the Spirit of God, working in it, before it could 
embrace and retain a conviction so alien to its 
nature. Nor was the difheulty of convincing the 
world of judgment less: nor was there less need that 
the Spirit of God should graciously undertake the 
work of producing this conviction. For by no other 
power than that of the Spirit of God could it be 
wrought; yet, unless it were wrought, the work of 
the Comforter would be incomplete. In vain would 
He convince the world of sin; in vain would He 
convince the world of righteousness; unless He per- 
fected His work by convincing the world of judg- 
ment. 

It is by the light of the Sun of Righteousness, we 
have found, that the Comforter convinces the world 


THE CONVICTION OF JUDGMENT. 149 


of sin. Some souls may be the most strongly im- 
pressed in the first instance by the beauty and glory 
of the righteousness manifested in the life of Christ, 
and may only be awakened by degrees to the con- 
sciousness of their own want of every thing akin 
thereto. Others, a far greater number, — especially - 
among those who are sent out from the quiet shelter 
of their homes to fight the world upon its own 
ground, — become immersed in such thick darkness, 
darkness like that which spread over the land of 
Egypt, darkness which may be felt, —they become 
so bound by the heavy chains of a morbid and turbid 
sleep, —that the first sound which strikes their con- 
sciences, when they are startled out of that sleep, is 
the clanking of their chains,—the first sensation 
they are distinctly aware of is the weight of the 
darkness pressing stiflingly upon them. Now, which- 
ever the order of succession may be, if the convic- 
tion wrought in us be the work of the Comforter, the 
same effect, which took place in the natural world, 
when the Creative Word poured light through the 
dark and formless void, took place also, and still 
takes place, in the moral world, when the same Word 
pours His light through it. The Spirit. of Ged di- 
vides the light from the darkness, and calls the light 
Righteousness; and the darkness He calls Sin. But 
is this all? Is He content with merely dividing them, 
with merely giving them their names, and leaving 
them to stand arrayed over against each other? Is 
He so weak, that He can do no more than this? or 
so indifferent, that He will not do more? Is the light 
content with dividing itself from the darkness? Does 
it allow the darkness to lift up its head against it? 


13* 


150 THE CONVICTION OF JUDGMENT. 


Does it not utterly scatter the darkness, and drive it 
away before its face? They who are hidden from 
the light by the thick, impermeable mass of the earth, 
will still be in darkness: but whithersoever the light 
comes, thence the darkness flies. And must it not 
be so likewise, when the Son of God sends His 
Spirit from Heaven, to show forth the light of His 
righteousness, and to convince the world of the dark- 
ness of its sin? Assuredly it must. ‘The manifesta- 
tion of Christ’s righteousness is not merely in order 
to reveal the sin of the world, but in order to scatter 
and confound it and drive it away. When He came 
forth from the bosom of the Father, to war against 
Sin, He did not come to the end that the victory 
should be doubtful: He did not come to share the 
empire of the world with Satan. He came to over- 
throw Satan; yea, and He did overthrow him. He 
came to cast out sin; yea, and He did cast it out. 
From His own humanity He cast it out, arid waved 
His sword of light before it, whenever it dared ap- 
proach Him: and hereby He gave a pledge that it 
shall be cast out from the souls of all His saints, of 
all who shall become partakers of His blessed and 
glorious redemption. 

This is the great truth, of which the Comforter 
came to convince the world, when He came to con- 
vinee it of judgment: and this again is a truth of 
which no other power can convince it. Or is there 
any other power that can? ‘The word Judgment 
naturally reminds us of that power by which the 
yulers of States in all ages have endeavored to con- 
vince the people thereof. Law is the voice whereby 
the wisdom of those who are set in authority over 


THE CONVICTION OF JUDGMENT. 151 


nations has tried from the beginning to convince 
mankind of judgment. It is a solemn voice, direct, 
imperative, oracular, mighty among the voices of 
the earth, girt with majesty and with terror, speak- 
ing like thunder, and executing its sentence like 
lightning. ‘The wisdom of nations is employed in ~ 
devising and enacting laws: the wisdom of nations 
is employed in administering and enforcing them : 
the power of nations is pledged to carry them into 
execution: and fearful are the weapons which that 
power has to wield, dungeons, chains, exile from the 


land of our fathers, the severance of every tie that ¢™ 


renders life precious or pleasant, death. Such is the 
plan which man takes to convince his fellows of 
judgment: and how vain is it! Against how small 
a portion of the brood of sin can Law even utter 
judgment! Only against gross overt acts of Sin ; 
against such acts as break the public peace, or seri- 
ously injure the well-being of others. So far there- 
fore as Law goes, there are vast multitudes of sins, 
against which no sentence even of reprobation is 
denounced ; how vast, you will better couceive, if you 
reflect how much of your own past lives has been 
sinful, yet how seldom, if ever, you have done any 
thing of which the law could have had cognizance. 
Moreover, even among those sins which Law for- 
bids, how few comparatively are the acts against 
which judgment takes effect!) The act must be out- 
rageous; the evidence of its commission must be 
clear, satisfactory, unimpeachable, without flaw or 
loophole. The carelessness and apathy of those 
against whom the offence is committed, their shrink- 
ing from appearing in the character of prosecutors 


152 THE CONVICTION OF JUDGMENT. 


and calling down wrath upon their brethren, — the 
skill and subtilty of advocates, — the mildness of 
judges, bound by their very office to give the accused 
the benefit of the slightest doubt, the faintest pre- 
sumption, —the natural sympathy which man feels 
with suffering, even where it is the consequence of 
guilt, and which, in an effeminate age, when men 
have lost the idea of the rightful connection and pro- 
portion between moral and physical evil, so as to 
shudder at pain more sensitively than at sin, threat- 


‘ens almost to paralyze the arm of Justice, —the 
‘yeluctance to condemn a fellow creature, which the 


consciousness of our own frailty begets, and which 
is strongest in the purest hearts, —all these motives 
combine to screen culprits, even those whose crimes 
have been flagrant, from the judgment of Law. 
How rarely has a law been repealed or fallen into 
disuse, because it had fulfilled its purpose, and the 
crime it forbad had ceased to be committed! When 
laws have become obsolete, it has been much rather 
from changes in the condition and habits of society, 
than from their own efficiency. On the other hand 
how glaringly is the incapacity of Law to convince 
the world of judgment demonstrated by the con- 
tinual multiplication of laws! In reckless defiance 
of Law, new crimes are invented, and the old ones 
are still perpetrated as frequently as ever. Nay, 
unless a far mightier, more pervading and penetra- 
tive power than that of Law were employed to con- 
vince the world of judgment, you might enact law 
after law to repress the fraud and violence of man, 
you might weave a net of laws around him to tame 
him, you might twine your threads fast and tight 


THE CONVICTION OF JUDGMENT. 153 


and thick about every limb; and just as you had 
finished your task, he would crumble to dust from 
rottenness and corruption. _ 

Law however is not a voice which often sounds 
in your ears, my brethren, to convince you of judg- 
ment. ‘The sins and offences which Law forbids, 
are not those into which you are likely to fall. Why 
so? Because you are convinced of judgment? If 
you were, you would be no less unlikely to fall into 
other sins, than into those which the law condemns. 
But you have few temptations to commit the latter. 
The sins which the law brands are mostly offences 
against the institutions, the order and peace of soci- 
ety; and your interests are bound up with those 
institutions, and that order and peace. Therefore 
you are not apt to commit such sins, and need not 
the reprobation of the law to repel you from them. 
But the world has other voices whereby men are to 
be convinced of judgment, voices addressed more 
especially to you. The law, properly so called, the 
law of the State, is addressed mainly to other classes 
of society: the law of honor, the law of opinion are 
addressed to you. Now these in some respects have 
been more eflective than the law of the State in con- 
vincing the world of judgment. They have at times 
succeeded in checking and repressing certain sins ; 
some they have almost extirpated. Yet it can by 
no means be said even of these, that they do indeed 
convince the world of judgment. For what is the 
judgment, of which they convince the world? Not 
the judgment of God, but the judgment of the world 
itself. Hereby they foster and pamper the sin of 
worshipping the world, instead of God; a sin which 


154 THE CONVICTION OF JUDGMENT. 


seems to become huger and more oppressive with 
the increase of civilization. The motive they appeal 
to is the desire of pleasing the world, not of pleasing 
God. He who rules his conduct solely by the laws 
of honor and opinion, will be just as careless about 
God, just as remote from the righteousness of Christ 
as the most barefaced sinner. These laws do not 
point straightforward along the path of duty. ‘They 
say not, This is right; do and love tt: This is wrong; 
eschew and abhor it. They say, This will exalt thee 
in the esteem of thy neighbors: This will brand thee 
with shame and ignominy. Moreover, as the grounds 
of these laws are erroneous, and their motives spuri- 
ous and tainted with evil, so, in that which they 
enjoin and forbid, they are arbitrary, partial, super- 
ficial, fallacious. Much that is sinful they encour- 
+ age. Looking in all things at that which displays 
itself to the eyes of man, they leave the recesses of 
the heart unexplored and untouched; so that the 
more a man conforms to them, the more apt is he to 
become a whited sepulchre. Nay, there is one large 
class of sins, of which they are well nigh regardless, 
—those most insidious and pernicious sins, with 
which human morality has ever been at a loss how 
to deal, the sins of impurity and licentiousness. ‘To 
such vices they are lenient and indulgent, except 
when they become excessive. Hereby these laws at 

| once betray their inability to convince the world of 

' judgment, in that they do not presume to condemn 
' the sin itself, in all its forms and indications, but ; 
' only when it becomes an open outrage, destructive 
, of happiness, and undermining the foundations of 


family life. 


THE CONVICTION OF JUDGMENT. tH 


Thus impotent are the witnesses of this world to 
convince the world of judgment. Nor had the wit- 
nesses appointed by God for the purpose in the 
earlier ages of the world been able to produce this 
conviction efficaciously. From the very first God 
had set the mark of judgment upon sin. Ere Death 
was, ere Sin had sprung up in the heart of man, 
God had declared that Death should execute judg- 


ment against Sin. What Death was to be, man \ 


knew not: its dark shadow had never yet passed 
over the bright vernal face of paradisiacal life. He 
only knew that it was something to be greatly feared 
and shunned, something betokening God’s severe 
displeasure, and that it was to be the consequence 
and penalty of disobedience. Yet Death did not 
convince man of judgment in the days before it 
entered into the world: nor has it ever done so 
since. Although this judgment against sin has been 
executed in countless millions of instances, ever 
since man sold himself into the bondage of sin, — 
although Death has pursued him whithersoever he 
has wandered, into every nook and corner of the 
earth, and has never allowed him to evade its 
clutches, — although the whole earth is one vast 
charnel-house in which Death has laid up the victims 
of Sin, — although no minute of time glides by with- 
out tolling the death of some among the children of 
men, —still man will not believe that Death has 
been appointed by God as a judgment against sin. 
He will not look upon it as such. He deems that it 
is merely a law of nature; as in truth it is, a law of 
our sinful nature, a law to which all such as are con- 
cluded under sin must bow. But he will not recog- 


156 THE CONVICTION OF JUDGMENT. 


nize the connection between death and sin. He 
feels indeed that sin is a law of his nature, that there 
is a law in his members, which he cannot withstand, 
dragging him into sin; and this he will often allege, 
more especially to his own conscience, as an excuse 
for continuing unresistingly in sin; although at 
other times, when the spirit of pride has for the mo- 
ment supplanted the spirit of sloth, he will be ready 
to boast of the strength and dignity and virtuous 
energies of his nature. He knows too that death is 
a law of his nature; and this he never thinks of 
denying or questioning: nay, he is prone to believe , 
the whisperings of the deceiver, who tells him that 
so it ever has been, and so it ever will and must be, 
— that to wrestle against it is vain, — that to trouble 
one’s self about it is unprofitable self-tormenting, — 
that we must let it be, as though it were not, — that 
we must copy the example of Nature, who hastens 
to efface every trace of Death’s hand, and who, with | 
the seeds of death rankling in every limb, decks her- 
self out with the pageant of exuberant, unquench- 
able life, and makes use of the exuviee of death to 
render that life more luxuriant, —and that, what- 
ever may come after death, we must deem of it as a 
nonentity ; for that no power can conquer death on 
this side of the grave, and still less beyond. ‘Thus, 
although Death has been ordained to pass to and fro 
over the whole earth, stalking from land to land, and 
from city to city, and from house to house, knock- | 
ing time after time with sorrow and piteous wailing | 
«.at the door of every heart, — and although it has not 
-gone forth alone, but accompanied by a thronging 
train of pains and diseases, blighting the bloom of 


THE CONVICTION OF JUDGMENT. 157 


youth, blasting the strength of manhood, gnawing 
at the core of old age, and bringing one after another 
down into the all-levelling grave, — although more- 
over it sends forth the whole host of physical evils 
whereby the world is desolated, to keep man in 
mind of wrath, — although this countless multitude 
of witnesses is ever traversing the earth, with sounds 
of lamentation and tribulation and anguish, to con- 
vince the world of judgment, — still all is in vain, 
the world will not be convinced. Man will not 
believe that death and pain and sickness and misery 
are the offspring of Sin: he will not believe that Sin 
must produce this, and can produce no other oft- 
spring. Or even if he is led to discern the general 
connection between sin and misery, still he will not 
believe that this connection is necessary and indis- 
soluble. He listens greedily to the words of the 
Tempter, who tells him that in his case the connec= 
tion shall be violated, that, in special indulgence to 
him, this adamantine chain of moral gravitation, 
more lasting and binding than that by which the 
stars are held in their spheres, will snap; that sin 
for him will wholly change its nature ; that he shall 
find nothing but pleasures and raptures in it, and 
nothing but weariness and vexation apart from it; 
that at his approach the flames of hell will turn into 
a garden of delights, while Eden would shrivel into 
a wilderness the moment he set foot there. 

I will not enter into details for the sake of point- 
ing out how vain all forms of misery have ever been 
to convince the world of judgment. It is needless. 
You can hardly walk along the streets of a great 
city without seeing swarms rushing eagerly in chase 


14 


158 THE CONVICTION OF JUDGMENT. 


of sin, although shame and scom and outcastness 
‘and destitution and disease and death are glaring 
with fixed eyes upon them. The first man born 
after the expulsion of our first parents out of Para- 
dise became a murderer, and dragged death into the 
world, as though it were lagging too long to execute 
God’s judgment against sin. He who had preached 
righteousness to the generation before the Flood, — 
he who had beheld that whole generation with 
every work of its hands swept away,— he who had 
floated suspended between earth and heaven, the 
head of the one sole family spared from the universal 
destruction, while the waters of Judgment were 
rushing whelmingly around him, — he who had thus 
witnessed this awful manifestation of God’s twofold 
judgment, of wrath against sin and of mercy to 
righteousness, — even he, we read, fell into the snares 
of sin, and yielded his soul to the lusts of that world 
which he had seen turned by sin into a ghastly 
wreck: and among the seven souls who were pre- 
served along with him, one brought down a father’s 
curse upon his head. A like testimony has ever 
been borne by times of great, desolating calamity, 
/as when a famine or a pestilence has been let loose 
to prey upon a people: for while they who have 
already been convinced of judgment, are stirred at 
such seasons to a still deeper seriousness of thought 
and strictness of life and earnestness of devotion, on 
the other hand the near approach of danger seems 
rather to render the children of this world more reck- 
less, and to unkennel the fierce lusts and devouring 
passions, which selfish fears and shame had _ pre- 
viously locked up in the dark places of their 


aia Po 


THE CONVICTION OF JUDGMENT. 159 


hearts (x). Thus again it is notorious that a public 
execution is mostly a scene of fresh crime; and that, 
when a ship is wrecked, many of the wretched men 
who are about to be swallowed up by the waves, 
will spend their few remaining moments in madden- 
ing drunkenness and plunder and _licentiousness.” 
So utterly inefficient is wrath and every mode of 
selfish fear to convince mankind of judgment. If 
man had nothing but the terrors of this world and 
the prospect of death to act upon him, the nearer 
those terrors came, the louder and more general 
would be the shout, Let us eat and drink; for to-: 
morrow we die. And although Tragedy makes it, 
her special business to convince the world of judg- 
ment, by setting forth the fated and inevitable doom 
which sin brings down upon its head, Comedy bears 
witness how transient such impressions are, how 
soon they are laughed away, how readily and mer- 
rily men will. rush down the precipice, at the foot of 
which their brethren are lying crushed before their 
eyes. Nor are the solemn lessons which History 
reads from the records of all ages more effective: 
we only learn them by rote, and repeat them io our 
posterity, with the confirmation of our own ex- 
amples. 

Nor did the Law of God, with all the infallible 
curses attached to it, produce the conviction of judg- 
ment. Even while it was delivered on the mount 
amid thunders and lightnings, the people at the foot 
of the mount were turning away from the God who 
was declaring His holy will to them, and were defil- 
ing their souls before His face with new idolatrous 
abominations. So too did their children continue to 


MRI 


a 


160 THE CONVICTION OF JUDGMENT. 


do. In their earlier ages the Israelites were perpetu- 
ally forsaking Jehovah and His law, to worship the 
false gods of the Heathens. In their latter ages they 
made the Law itself an object of mere idolatry, 
pampering their carnal pride by a precise observance 
of the latter, while they were careless about the 
spirit. And though God sent His prophets, voice 
after voice, wave after wave of sound, rolling with a 
melancholy moan through the moral wilderness of 
Judea,—though they lifted up their voices, and 
eried to the heavens and the earth to give ear, and 
hear the woes which God had denounced against 
sin, — still Israel would not hear, His people would 
not consider. So that in this instance again we 
find an absolute need and necessity that the Spirit 
of God should come down from heaven to work the 
conviction, which no other power could work. 

The Comforter will convince the world of judgment. 
We have seen how He convinces the world, how 
He convinces each individual soul, of the sin of not 
believing in Christ; and how He leads us to cast 
away that sin, whereby we were cut off from God 
and all goodness, to give up our hearts to faith, to 
believe, and to find a power in our faith which will 
deliver us from ourselves and from sin. We have 
seen how He convinces the world, and each individ- 
ual soul, of Christ’s righteousness; how He con- 
vinces us that Christ, in that He went to His Father, 
manifested Himself to be the Lord our Righteous- 
ness; and how He leads us to seek to be clothed in 
the righteousness which Christ has obtained for us. 
Now this, it might be thought, must be enough. 
The whole work of God, the whole work of the 


THE CONVICTION OF JUDGMENT. 161 


Spirit for the completion of Christ’s work and the 
salvation of mankind, might seem to be fulfilled. 
When we are clothed in Christ’s righteousness, 
what more can be desired? What more can be 
done for the soul, which is arrayed in the pure and 
spotless robe of the Lamb? Nothing; provided it 
were to pass at once out of the prison of the flesh ; 
provided death were to come to it, and bear it aloft 
from the temptations and struggles of this world to 
the abode of everlasting calmness and peace. In 
most cases however this is not so. In most cases, 
even after the soul has been convinced of sin and of 
righteousness, and has been clothed anew in the 
righteousness of faith, it is still doomed to live on in 
a world of frailty, surrounded and assailed by all 
manner of temptations, to’ feel the lustings of the 
flesh against the Spirit, and to beat and wound its 
Wings against the wires of its cage. In most cases 
there are still many battles to be fought, still many 
foes to be overcome, still a long and hard and toil- 
some warfare to be endured. We must bear our 
part in the Church militant, before we are received 
into the Church triumphant. Seldom is the renewed 
spirit allowed to pass at once from its Egyptian 
bondage to the land of promise: a long and barren 
wilderness is mostly to be traversed, before it can 
reach the heavenly Canaan. Only, when we have 
been truly convinced of our own sinfulness, and of 
Christ’s righteousness, we feel that there is a dif- 
ference in our warfare, that we are not left to fight 
singlehanded against’ the powers of evil, with no 
other strength than that of our own blind and erring 
understanding, and our own feeble and mutilated 


[4 


162 THE CONVICTION OF JUDGMENT. 


Teonscience. We feel that we have a mighty Ally, 
who can enable us to overcome all our enemies, and 
twho has already overcome them in our behalf. We 
see that the darkness, when the light comes against 
it, cannot stand and fight against the light, but flies 
instantaneously from its face. We are taught that, 
if we will lift up our. hearts in constant and fervent 
prayer to our heavenly Ally, we too shall prevail, as 
Israel prevailed against Amalek. We perceive that 
the Lord of Hosts is going before us; and if beneath 
the broad light of day the vision is less clear, so that 
we see nothing more distinct than the pillar of a 
cloud, no sooner does the darkness of affliction and 
tribulation thicken around, than it is brightened by 
a beaming pillar of fire. Above all, we recognize 
that we have indeed come away from the fleshpots 
ef Egypt, and their temptations, whereby a while 
back we were so easily beguiled: we have found 
out the shame and the death that is in them: and 
though the land on all sides be a wilderness, we . 
know that this wilderness is not meant to be our 4 
abiding-place, but that we are to journey onward ) 
and ever onward through it to our home; that the 
pleasures of sin would only make it far more dan- 
gerous and deadly; and that, dreary as it may seem, 
God will not suffer us to faint by the way, but will 
bring forth water from the rock to refresh the souls 
of His faithful people, and will feed them with 
manna from heaven. 

Such is the conviction which the Comforter works 
in the souls convinced by Him of sin and of right- 
eousness, thus making His comfort perfect: He con- 

\ yinces them of Judgment. Of judgment! This is 


THE CONVICTION OF JUDGMENT. 163 


an awful and terrible word in the ears of mankind. 
Even with reference to the relations of this world, 
when we are merely thinking of human laws, of 
human justice, of human judges, that may so easily 
be deceived or softened or eluded, it strikes a chill 
through the heart of the culprit to hear that he is 
called up to judgment. What fear and dismay then 
will there be, when the trumpet of the archangel is 
heard, sounding the death notes of Time, and cry- 
ing to those who sleep in the grave, Awake, and come 
to judgment! What heart would not shrink and 
quail, were it to receive such a summons now? 
Surely there is no one here present, there is no one 
living upon earth, there never was a single one 
among the children of men, who could look search- 
ingly back over his past life, or even over a single 
day, and could then exclaim, with a distinct con- 
sciousness of the aspect sin must bear in the eyes of 
the Allrighteous, Lam ready to meet the Judge; Iam 
ready to face the Judgment. 

Yet in this case, also,as we have found in the two 
former, it is indeed the Comforter, who convinces 
the world of judgment: nor could there be any real, 
stable comfort, unless this conviction were added 
to the others. Indeed this very conviction will ena- 
ble those whom the Spirit convinces of it, to stand 
with meek and humble hope on the day of that last 
dreadful judgment, when the sentence of the law 
will go forth over all the generations of mankind. 
The Comforter will convince the world of judgment, 
our Lord says, because the Prince of this world is 
judged (vy). Who is the Prince of this world? The 
Lord is King, cries the Psalmist: let the earth re- 


" — - & 
BESSA ET Ses grt 4 


/ 
| nadia 


164 THE CONVICTION OF JUDGMENT. 


jowce ; and let the multitude of the isles be glad thereof. 
Is the Lord then the Prince of this world? the 
Prince of those who give up their hearts to this 
world? Is he your Prince, your King? By right 
He is so, by a twofold title, as your Creator, and as 
your Redeemer. But so long as you continue the 
children of this world, He is not in point of fact your 


“King. He is not the King whom the children of this 


world honor and obey and serve. Their true King, 
the King whom they really honor and obey and 
serve, is ... whom did Eve obey and serve, when 
she was beguiled by the pleasures of the senses to 
pluck the forbidden fruit? Whom did Cain obey 
and serve, when he lifted his hand against Abel? 
Whom did the generation before the Flood obey 
and serve, when it repented the Lord that He had 
made man? Whom did the children of the plain 
obey and serve, when they attempted to build a 
tower, the top of which should reach to heaven ? 
Whom did Ksau obey and serve, wlten he sold his 
birthright? Whom did the sons of Jacob obey and 
serve, when they cast Joseph into the pit? Whom 
did Samson obey and serve, when he laid his head 
in the lap of Delilah? Whom did David obey and 
serve, when he commanded that Uriah should be set 
in the front of the battle, and left to die? Whom 
did Solomon obey and serve, when his wives turned 
away his heart to worship Ashtoreth and Milcom ? 
Whom did Herod obey and serve, when he slew the 


_ children at Bethlehem ? Whom did Judas obey and 


serve, when he betrayed his Master? Whom did 
Pilate obey and serve, when he gave up Him in 
whom he could find no fault, to be crucified ? They 


THE CONVICTION OF JUDGMENT. 165 


all obeyed and served the Prince of this world, the 
Prince who under one shape or other reigns in the 
hearts of all the children of this world, swaying some 
by the lusts of the flesh, and others by the lusts of 
the eye, and others again by the pride of life. These 
are his lures, by which he catches the souls of men, 
which few can withstand, and from which few can 
extricate themselves. His commandments are Avll; 
Commit adultery; Steal; Lie; Covet: and this his 


word runneth very swiftly from one end of the earth | 
to the other. Neighbor takes it up from neighbor; | 


brother whispers it to brother; and father hands it | 
down to son. There is no speech or language in| 


which his voice is not heard. ‘There is no heart 


among the children of men, through which it has _ 


not often sounded. In truth, few, very few are the 
hearts through which it does not sound at times, 
more or less loudly, during the main part of their 
lives. Is it not so, brethren? Have you not heard 
these voices sound in your hearts, sometimes imper!- 
ously, sometimes fawningly, with wily insinuation? 
Nay, are there not those, who, if the truth were 
extorted from them, would have to confess that they 
have heard these voices too recently, that they have 
listened to them too complacently, with too little 
shuddering or recoil? Alas, even among those who 
have been convinced by the Holy Spirit both of sin 
and of righteousness, there are few who are not 
reminded ever and anon, that another law is still 
dwelling in their members, warring against the law 
of God. 

Most comfortable therefore is the assurance, which 
the Holy Spirit brings to all such as have cast off 


‘ 
Sepa 
f 


166 THE CONVICTION OF JUDGMENT. 


the sin of unbelief, and have given up their hearts 
and minds to a living faith in Christ,—to all such 
as, having been taught to discern what true right- 
eousness is, and how destitute they are of it, are 
secking to put on the righteousness of Christ, — 
most comfortable to all such is the conviction of 
judgment, manifested in this, that the Prince of this 
world has been judged. So long as they were still 
in Egypt, baited with the fleshpots of Egypt, and 
toiling in the brickkilns of Egypt, they could not 
lift up their hands against Pharaoh. The yoke of 
the Prince of this world was on their necks; and 
whithersoever he drove them, they were compelled 
to go. If he fed them daintily and plentifully, they 
thanked him and bowed down to him. At first he 
would do so, and supplied them with straw. He 
stirred the tinglings of appetites within them, which 
they were fain to bake into sins. But after a while 
his wont is to take away the straw. The very appe- 
tites and passions, by which sinners were once led 
into their sins, sicken and die; and yet they are 
forced to render the same tale of sins as before. 
Nay, such is the cruelty and malice of the Prince of 
this world, that, when he has made sure of his 
drudges, he will tear away their sons and slay them. 
Whatever is dearest to them, whatever they prize 
most, he will destroy; yet they must needs go on 
laboring in his toils. Be it health, he will take their 
health from them, and cover them with leprous dis- 
eases ; and yet they must go on sinning. Be it for 
riches that they have bartered their souls, he will 
take away their riches, or, it may be, will tum their 
riches into a cankering care; and yet they must go 


THE CONVICTION OF JUDGMENT. 167 


on sinning. Be it honor and power that they have | 
sought by dark and ungodly ways, he will snatch I 
their power from them, and crush them with shame ; 
and yet they must go on sinning. Be pleasure their 
idol, he will turn their pleasures into a swarm of 
stinging, gnawing pains; and yet they must go on 
sinning. And after all, if any messenger of God 
comes to them, and speaks to them of the living 
God, and calls on them to come out from their 
bondage, and to serve Him, the Prince of this world 
cries, What have ye to do with a living God? ye 
who are dead, and the slaves of dead gods? Ye are 
idle: back to your sins: Iwill not let you go (2). 
Thus does the Prince of this world deal with the 
children of this world. Glad tidings therefore must 
it be to those who have escaped out of his clutches, 
that the Prince of this world has been judged. A 
glad sight was it to the children of Israel, when they 
saw the host of Pharaoh swallowed up by the waters 
of the Red Sea. Thus, when the children of our 
spiritual Israel have been convinced of sin and of 
righteousness by the Comforter, when they have 
thus been brought to loathe the land of sin and to 
fly from it, He delivers them from the fear of their 
pursuers by convincing them that Pharaoh and all 
his host, the Prince of this world and his whole 
legion of sins, have been swallowed up for those > 
who believe in Christ, and are clothed with His 
righteousness, in the blood which flowed from the 
Cross. Glad tidings indeed must this be, glad and 
comfortable tidings, so that they who are convinced 
thereof are ready to cry out in the words of Miriam: 
Sing ye to the Lord! for He hath triumphed glori- 


168 THE CONVICTION OF JUDGMENT. 


ously: the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the 
sea. Yes, Death, and the pale horse Sin, — pale and 
ghastly now that wt is seen in its true colors, — hath 
He cast down and buried forever in His victorious 
grave. 

For this is the way in which all such as have been 
convinced by the Comforter of the sinfulness of un- 
belief and of the righteousness of Christ, are further 
enabled to discern that the Prince of this world has 
been judged. His judgment was like that of Herod, 
whom, when he was sitting in regal state, and the 
people were worshipping him, and shouting, Jf is a 
god! the angel of the Lord smote; and straightway 
his crown dropped from his head, and his royal 
robe fell off, and behold, the worms were devouring 
him. They who are truly convinced of judgment, 
see the Prince of this world as he is, in his true 
shape and features, the heir of eternal wrath, the 
miserable victim of his own fiendish malignity. 
They perceive that he is indeed cursed above every 
beast of the field, that his path is on his belly, and 
that his food is dust. ‘Their eyes are unsealed, so 
that he can no more deceive them. ‘They see how 
Christ overcame him, —by that sword of the Spirit, 
which is the word of God. They see how all the 
most fascinating temptations are scattered in a mo- 
ment by the breath of God's holy law. When night 
is spread around us, the light of a candle will seem 
bright and pleasant: but when the day has lt up 
the heavens and the earth, it dwindles so as hardly to 
be seen. Thus it is even with the more innocent 
pleasures of this world, to those whose eyes have. 
been opened by faith to catch a foreglimpse of the 


OO _ 


THE CONVICTION OF JUDGMENT. 169 


joys of heaven; while its vicious pleasures are clean 
put out, as the sunshine puts outa fire. To recur 
to that same great scriptural type of our redemption, 
Which has already presented itself to our thoughts, 
—they who have been convinced of the sin of un- 
belief, of that sin whereby their hearts were estranged 
from God, and given up to the service of this world, 
—and who have also been convinced of Christ's 
righteousness, have discerned its surpassing glory 
and beauty, and have felt the unspeakable blessed- 
ness of being received into a participation of that 
righteousness, and thereby restored to a communion 
with God,—all they in whom these two great 
works have been accomplished, feel that they have 
indeed come forth from the rich, luxurious land of 
Egypt, that the fashion of the country around them 
is wholly changed, and that, except for the visita- 
tions of God’s grace, with which their passage 
through it may be brightened, it is no better than a 
wilderness in comparison with the land flowing with 
milk and honey toward which they are journeying. 
They no more think of fixing their home where they 
are, than a ship thinks of mooring in the middle of 
the homeless Atlantic. Their eyes are always gazing 
onward and forward; nor would they turn back or 
look round, but for the pleasure and refreshment 
they find in cheering and helping and strengthening 
their fellow-pilgrims on the way. 

In order to understand the mystery, how the 
Prince of this world was judged, we must go back 
to the twelfth chapter of the same blessed Gospel, 
from which our text is taken. There we find our 

15 


170 THE CONVICTION OF JUDGMENT. 


Lord saying, with His spirit full of the bitter suffer- 
ings which awaited Him, Now is My soul troubled ; 
and what shall Isay? Shall I say, Father, save Me 
from this hour? But it was for this cause that I 
came to this hour. Father, glorify Thy name. Then, 
we further read, there came a voice from heaven say- 
ing, Ihave both glorified it, and will glorify wt again. 
Hereupon Jesus said, Now is the judgment of this 
world: now shall the Prince of this world be cast out. 
And I, if Iam lifted up from the earth, shall draw all 
men to Me. In these words we are taught, how the 
Prince of this world was to be judged, how he was 
to be cast out (aa). The Father declared from 
heaven, that He had glorified and would still glo- 
rify His name. In that He did so, in the very act 
of His showing forth His glory, the world was 
judged; and the Prince of this world, whose do- 
minion over the world lay in his having drawn it 
away from the recognition of God’s glory and name, 
was cast out. But how did the Father purpose to 
glorify His name? It was to be glorified in this, 
that His Onlybegotten Son Jesus Christ was to be 
lifted up from the earth to His throne upon the 
Cross. This was such a manifestation of God’s 
glory, that the sun turned pale before it, and the 
mid-day sky grew dark. For then, when Christ 
was lifted up from the earth, the glory of God was 
shown forth even more than in the creation of the 
world. Then was shown forth the glory of God’s 
holiness. Then was shown forth the glory of God’s 
mercy. Then was shown forth the glory of God’s 
righteousness. Then was shown forth the glory of 


THE CONVICTION OF JUDGMENT. 17 


God’s love. Hereby, too, above all, does the Com- 
forter convince us both of sin and of righteousness, — 
by the Cross of Christ. It is at the foot of the 
Cross, that we most deeply and thoroughly feel the 
sin of not believing in Him, who came down from 
heaven to die upon that Cross for us. It is at the 
foot of the Cross, that we feel all the hatefulness of 
sin, which could not be removed from the souls of 
men, except by the death of the Son of God. It is 
at the foot of the Cross, when the consummating 
trial of death is past, —when He, whose every word 
has manifested the divine power of love to overcome 
sin’s fiercest and subtilest temptations, has given up 
the ghost, — that, with the centurion, we recognize 
the perfect righteousness of Christ: and as the pur- 
pose for which He was lifted up was, that He might 
become our righteousness, and draw us to partake in 
the righteousness which He had obtained for us, so 
it is at the foot of the Cross, that we feel how we 
are admitted to a share in the righteousness of 
Christ. Thus, too, if, standing at the foot of the 
Cross, we raise our eyes to Him who was nailed 
thereon, —if in the light of the Spirit we behold 
Him there lifted up as our Righteousness, —if we 
call to remembrance what He left, and what He 
embraced, for our sakes, —if we thus fix the earnest 
gaze of our hearts and souls and minds on the 
glory of God as manifested on the Cross of Christ, 
—then, when our eyes drop from thence on the 
things of this world, we cannot fail to discern how 
the Prince of this world has been judged. 

Now to Him who convinces us of sin and of 


‘ 
‘ 
<< 

§ 


17/2 THE CONVICTION-OF JUDGMENT. 


righteousness and of judgment, the Comforting 
Spirit of God, and to Jesus Christ, our Righteous- 
ness, by whom the Prince of this world was judged, 
in the Unity of the Eternal Father, be all praise and 
thanksgiving and adoration, world without end. 


wei wl fd A pr og 


THE THREEFOLD CONVICTION OF THE COMFORTER. 


WHEN THE COMFORTER IS COME, HE WILL CONVINCE THE WORLD OF 
SIN, AND OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND OF JUDGMENT; OF SIN, BECAUSE 
THEY BELIEVE NOT IN ME}; OF RIGHTEOUSNFSS, BECAUSE I GO TO 
MY FATHER, AND YE SEE ME NO MORE} OF JUDGMENT, BECAUSE 
THE PRINCE OF THIS WORLD IS JUDGED. — John xvi. 8-11. 


Tue great work of the Comforter, the work for the 
sake of which He was to come down from heaven, 
as set forth by our Lord in His farewell discourse’ 
with the disciples, was to produce the threefold con- 
viction of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. 
This is the divine work which the Holy Spirit was 
to perform, as the Paraclete, the Comforter and Ad- 
vocate, the Helper and Strengthener of the disciples 
in the mighty task committed to them of bringing 
all the nations of the earth into that Church, of 
which they were to lay and to be the foundations. 
By working this conviction, He was to be their Ad- 
vocate, pleading and upholding their cause against 
the craft and subtilty of the Deceiver; He was to 
be their Strengthener, endowing their words with 
the power of piercing and turning the soul; He was 
to prepare the way for them whithersoever they 
went, and to give them the victory, making their 


Lom 


174 THE THREEFOLD CONVICTION 


enemies throw aside their arms, and rush over and 
enlist in their ranks. 'The conviction was to be 
wrought in the world. Hence it was to be universal 
in its character as well as its extent; differing herein 
from those special gifts, whether intellectual or more 
immediately spiritual, which are bestowed by the 
Spirit upon individual believers. The truths, of 
which the Comforter was to convince the world, 
were truths intimately pertaining to the whole hu- 
man race, and to every single member thereof. 
While all men, as we have seen in the former ser- 
mons, have obstinately refused to be convinced of 
them by any other teacher, they are yet such as 
none, before whom they are set rightly, can resist, 
except through hardness of heart and blindness of 
understanding. Moreover it was to be a preparatory 
work, a work by which the nations were to be gath- 
ered into the Church of the Saviour. For, in order 
thereto, this threefold conviction was indispensable. 
No people would ever have thought of entering into 
Christ’s Church, unless they had previously been 
convinced of the sinfulness of their former idolatrous 
alienation from God,—and of the righteousness of 
Him, who, after pouring out His life on the Cross 
for the sins of the world, ascended to wear the 
crown of eternal Righteousness on the throne of his 
Father, — and of the judgment which had then gone 
forth against all the gods of the nations, and against 
all the abominations of their worship, casting them 


down aid destroying them, as Dagon was cast 
down and shattered to pieces by the presence of the 
ark of the Lord. 

That the Comforter did indeed perform this work, 


i a ae, ell aaa 


OF THE COMFORTER. 175 


after Christ went up to His Father, we know: we 
know too with what power He performed it. The 
promise in the text is, that He shall help the 
disciples in their great and seemingly impossible 
task, by convincing the world of sin and of right- 
eousness and of judgment. But this threefold con- 
viction, which He was to work in the world, He 
wrought first in the disciples themselves. For greatly 
did they too need it, as we see by manifold evidence 
in the events which preceded the Crucifixion. 
Greatly did they need to be convinced of sin, of 


their own deplorable weakness and frailty, who were | 


so forward and confident in declaring that they 
would die with their Lord, but would never deny 
Him, yet who anon, a few hours after, as might have 
been anticipated from their presumption, forsook 


Him and fled. Greatly did they need to be con-; 


vineed of righteousness, of His heavenly righteous-' 


ness, of that righteousness which alone is precious in 
the eyes of God, — they who, even after the Resur- 
rection, after the wonderful chain of proofs which 
had made it manifest that their Master’s Kingdom 
was not of this world, still clung to the hope that He 
was about to set up an earthly throne, and whose 
chief desire was, not to be made partakers in His 
heavenly righteousness, but to sit on the right hand 
and on the left of that earthly throne. Greatly too did 
they need to be convinced of judgment, of the jadg- 
ment which strips the world at once of its lures and its 
terrors, — they over whom the fears and charms of the 
world bad still such power, and whose flesh was so 
weak that they could not watch one hour with the 
Lord in His agony. But when the Comforter came 


etn 


— 


5 


176 THE THREEFOLD CONVICTION 


to them, then, and from that time forward, all 
was changed. Their eyes were opened; their 
hearts were new strung; and the spirit was en- 
abled to triumph over the weakness of the flesh. 
Their conviction of sin became deeper, in proportion 
as they were raised above it. As they cast off the 
slough of their former nature, they saw more and 
more clearly how vile it was. ‘The gaze of their 
hearts was forever fixed on the righteousness of their 
Lord, as He sat at the right hand of God: and this 
now was their one desire, not to exercise dominion, 
like the princes of the Gentiles, but to be filled more 
and more with that righteousness, and to show forth 
its glory to the nations, and to bring all mankind 
to become partakers in its blessings. As for the 
Prince of this world, they well knew that he was 
judged. They knew too that they themselves were 
sent forth to proclaim and to execute judgment 
against him, to defy him, to set him at nought, to 
drive him from all his strong-holds with the sword of 
the Spirit, and to trample him under foot. If he 
beat them with stripes, they rejoiced that they were 
counted worthy to suffer for their Lord. If he im- 
prisoned them they sang praises to God, until the 
doors of their prison burst open, and the captive was 
enabled to set the jailor free. If he stoned them, 
they looked up to heaven, and saw the glory of God, 
and fell asleep, showing that they had indeed seen 
it, by praying for the murderers whom the Prince of 
this world had stirred up against them. If they had 
to endure the extremities of earthly suffering, they 
counted their affliction light, in the assurance that 
it would work out a far more exceeding and eternal 
weight of glory. 


OF THE COMFORTER. 177 


Thus mighty was the conviction which the Com- 
forter wrought in the souls of the disciples. In the 
strength of this conviction the poor unlearned fisher- 
men of Galilee went forth, confident that their Mas- 
ter’s promise would be fulfilled, and that the Com- 
forter would always go along with them, to work 
the same threefold conviction in the world; to bring 
the world to a recognition of its sinfulness, summed 
up in the sin of unbelief in Him who came to dwell 
in the sight of the world as the Incarnate Image of 
God; and at the same time to a recognition of the 
righteousness of Him whom by its agents and repre- 
sentatives it had denied and crucified, and of the 
judgment fallen upon. the Prince whom it had been 
accustomed to worship and serve. When we cast 
our thoughts back on the state of the world at that 
time, and call to mind what an enterprise this was, 
how totally alien from any thing that the heart of 
man had ever conceived, — when we remember that 
almost every thing, which in earlier ages had seemed 
of fairer promise, was utterly extinct, and that Evil 
had set its foot upon the neck of the world, and was 
trampling upon its heart, and was reigning with un- 
contested, desolating tyranny over the whole earth, — 
our natural judgment exclaims that the men who 
could form so wild a scheme, must have been full of 
new wine, or, with Festus, that they must have been 
mad. Yet, unachievable as their undertaking was by 
any human power, the disciples did not go forth in 
vain: their trust in the aid of their heavenly Strength- 
ener was fully justified. At the sound of their preach- 
ing the world did recognize its sinfulness, as it had 
never recognized its sinfulness before. It recognized 


178 THE THREEFOLD CONVICTION 


the sinfulness which pervaded and tainted even such 
feelings and actions as it had till then deemed virtu- 
ous and praiseworthy. It recognized that new radical 
sin of unbelief, which at the time was almost accounted 
a part of wisdom and virtue; inasmuch as unbelief 
then was unbe ief in man’s perversions and corrup- 
tions of the Divine Idea,and in the monstrous fables 
which vagrant fancy and allegorizing speculation had 
strung thereto, —an unbelief which itself was involved 
in the belief in the Son of God; only that this belief 
substituted the fulness of living truth for the chaotic 
void of dreary negations. So too did the world in- 
deed receive a conviction of righteousness. It 
acknowledged that He who had gone to His Father 
had fulfilled and shown forth all righteousness. It 
learnt how totally different the righteousness of 
heaven is from that which it had set up for itself; 
how God had cast down the very qualities which it 
had been wont to boast of and glory in, and had ex- 
alted those which it had esteemed abject and ser- 
vile; how the stars had dropped from its fictitious 
heaven, while the true stars had come forward in 
their pure, mild light. It discerned that ambition 
and self-exaltation, fields of slaughter and nations 
led in triumph, the brightest blossoms of the imagi- 
nation and the richest harvest of the understanding, 
are not worth a cup of cold water given to one of 
Christ’s little ones ; and on the other hand that meek- 
ness and forbearance and patience and éndurance 
and humility and self-denial, which it would always! 
have derided and scouted, are the graces of the King- 
dom of Heaven; a kingdom not to be gained by 
ruling over mankind, but by ministering to them, not 


5 


OF THE COMFORTER. 179 


by destroying them, but by dying for them. Herein 
moreover, and in divers other ways, it perceived that 
the Prince of this world had been judged. It found 
out that the power of its false gods, — both of those 
that were throned openly in its cities, and of those 
that were reigning secretly in its heart, had passed 
away, or rather had never been, — that “ Peor and 
Baalim had left their temples dim,” —that their ora- 
cles were struck dumb, “No voice or hideous hum 
- ran through the arched roof in words deceiving,” — 
and that all their images were wood and stone, which 
could neither see nor hear, much less understand and 
will and command. 

It was through the power of the Comforter work- 
ing along with them, and through the conviction 
of sin and righteousness and judgment which He 
wrought, and enabled them to work, that the Apos- 
tles wrested so large a part of the world from the 
dominion of its Prince, and brought it into the 
Church of their Lord. But the empire of the Prince 
of this world was vast and deeply rooted. It spread. 
north and south and east and west, from sea to sea, 
and over all the isles of the sea, wherever man had 
set foot; and it was rooted in the corrupt heart of 
every child that had sprung from the race of Adam. 
Hence that portion of the world which the Apostles. 
during their lifetime brought into the Church of their 
Lord, enormous and prodigious as it was with refer-. 
ence to their human qualifications for such an under- 
taking, was yet but a small part of the whole earth: 
and though the word of life continued to go forth 
with power, with that power which the Comforter 
alone could give, for some generations after their 


180 THE THREEFOLD CONVICTION 


death,-it was still very far from subduing the whole 
earth; nor has it done so at this day. Even now 
there are immeasurable regions and countless masses 
of men, that do not even wear the name of Christ, 
and so can never have been convinced of sin and of 
righteousness and of judgment. Indeed many cen- 
turies have passed away, since Christ went to His 
Father, during which His Kingdom has scarcely been 
enlarged at all. What shall we say then? that the 
Comforter only came down in the first ages of the 
Church, and that, being wearied by the obstinate un- 
‘belief and unrighteousness and worldly-mindedness 
of mankind, He too went back to the Father, and 
left the world to drift along, whithersoever the flood 
of its sins would bear it? Notso. The Comforter 
was to abide with Christ’s disciples for ever: and 
where He abides, unless He be hindered, He con- 
tinually works that threefold conviction, which He 
came at first to work, and without which even His 
mighty presence would avail us little. If the increase 
of Christ’s Church has often been grievously checked, 
if age after age has rolled by, during which the on- 
rushing waves of the world have seemed to be almost 
encroaching upon it, the cause of this has not been 
that the Comforter has ever failed to help those who 
have gone forth, with the conviction of sin and of 
righteousness and of judgment in their own hearts, 
to work the same conviction in their brethren. The 
cause has rather been, that they who ought to have 
formed the vanguard of the Church, have themselves 
rejected the conviction of the Comforter, and hard- 
ened and deadened their souls to it. They who had 
no deep feeling of the sin of not believing in Christ, 


OF THE COMFORTER. 181 


as not only in itself the main head of sin, but also 
the source of numberless others, did not care to win 
men from it, thinking it of slight moment whether a 
man lies under it or no. In like manner they who 
had lost the perception of Christ’s righteousness, 
both in its sole, exclusive perfection, and as the 
ground of all other righteousness, and had relapsed. 
into the vision of a human, earthly righteousness, — 
and who, on the other hand, had totally forgotten 
that the Prince of this world had been judged, nay, 
who had cozened themselves into fancying that 
Christ would allow him to sit on the lower steps, or 
at least at the foot of his throne, — how could they 
yearn, with that fervent desire which brings its own 
fulfilment, to deliver the world from the bondage of 
its unrighteousness, and so to save it from judgment! 
Whereas, whenever Christ’s servants have been ani- 
mated with a strong, living conviction of sin and of 
righteousness and of judgment, and have been moved 
thereby to long for the redemption of their brethren 
from sin and judgment to righteousness, the Com- 
forter has always gone along with them, and the 
word of God in their hands has truly been the sword 
of the Spirit. Whatever increase Christ’s Kingdom 
has received from the beginning down to these times, 
it has received through the power of the Comforter : 
and if it is receiving any at this day, if we find 
reason to bless God for the manner in which the 
Heathen in any part of the earth are now coming 
into His Kingdom, our especial thanksgiving and 
praise are due to the Comforter, who is still work- 
ing His threefold conviction, and casting down the 
abominations of idolatry thereby. 
16 


182 THE THREEFOLD CONVICTION 


Nor is it solely in order to the extension of Christ’s 
Kingdom among the Heathens, that the Comforter 
still abides upon earth, working His threefold convic- 
tion. Christ’s Kingdom is not only to be extended 
through space, but to be prolonged through time. 
New souls are perpetually coming into life; new 
generations are springing up; and it is not enough 
for the children, that their fathers have been con- 
vinced of sin and righteousness and judgment: alas! 
the conviction of the parents is no pledge for that of 
the children. Man cannot transmit faith, he cannot 
transmit righteousness, as sin has been transmitted, 
from generation to generation. Each generation, nay, 
every individual soul must be convinced anew; and 
this conviction must be wrought by the Comforter, if 
it is to be strong and lasting. 

So that the work of the Comforter was not one 
which was to be performed once for all, like the 
sacrifice offered up by Christ on the Cross. He did 
not come down, as Christ did, to dwell a few years 
upon earth, and then to return back to the Father: 
He came to abide with Christ’s Church for ever. 
Moreover, as His work at the first was universal and 
preparatory, so has it ever been, and so is it still, — 
universal, in that His threefold conviction belongs to 
every child of man, and is such that without it none 
can have a clear insight into truth, as it is in himself, 
or in the world, or in God, —and preparatory, in that 
only thereby can any one livingly and consciously 
become a member of Christ’s holy Body (as). Thus 
it is still just as necessary as ever, that the Spirit of 
God should vouchsafe to convince the world, and 
every individual soul, of the sin of not believing in 


OF THE COMFORTER. 183 


Christ, — of the righteousness which Christ, when 
raised from the dead and having returned to His 
Father, obtained for all such as believe in Him, — 
and of the judgment wherewith the Prince of this 
world has been judged by Him who died on the 
Cross. This too is the great work and mission of 
the Church in the midst of the world, to preach 
these truths to the world with the power of the 
Spirit, to the end that the world, being convinced 
thereby, may turn from unbelief to faith, and from 
unrighteousness to righteousness, and thus may es- 
cape the everlasting, irrevocable judgment which has 
fallen upon its Prince. This is the controversy of the 
Church with the world. Seeing that the world lies 
under sin, concluded under sin, because of unbe- 
lief, because it will not and cannot believe in any 
thing except itself, the Church cries out to the world, 
Thou art under sin; thou tossest to and fro beneath 
it; thou heavest and quakest beneath it; but thou 
canst not shake it off: thy very struggles to shake it 
off are fresh proofs of thy sin: for thy struggles are 
made in thine own strength; and this is thy sin, the 
parent of all thy other sins, to believe in thyself, to be- 
heve in thine own strength. This is thy sin, that thou 
believest and ever hast believed in thyself, and not in 
God, not even when He came down to dwell, shorn of 
Eis invisible glory, and clothed in a body of thy dust, 
in the midst of thee. Even then thou wouldst not be- 
heve in Him, but didst gather the whole army of thy 
sins against Him, and wentest forth to battle against 
flim, and natledst Him to the Cross, and thoughtest 
thou couldst hold Him by the chains of Death, making 


184 THE THREEFOLD CONVICTION 


use of this thy master and destroyer, as though he 
were thy slave. Thou thoughtest in the hardness of 
thy heart, that He who was come down to redeem and 
renew thee, was even such as thou art, frail, feeble, 
mortal, the child of a day, the heir of the grave. 
Thou didst not believe in Him; thou accusedst Him of 
sin, and slewest Him. But God raised Him up from 
the grave, and showed that Death had no power to 
hold Him. He raised Him up, and took Him to Him- 
self, and seated Him by Himself on the throne of His 
righteousness, and thus, in the sight of men and angels, 
declared Him to be righteous, and gave Him that 
righteousness, which thou too shalt receive, if thou wilt 
cast away thy unbelief and thy self-worship, and wilt 
believe in thy Maker who came to deliver thee from 
these and all thy other infirmities and diseases. Of 
thyself thou hast no righteousness: scarcely canst 
thou conceive what manner of thing righteousness may 
be. Thou findest righteousness in the glare of thine 
own volcanic fires, in the perishable beauty of thine 
own fruits, in the bright polish, or the wild ruggedness 
of thine own rocks. Thou heedest not that the light, 
which alone brings forth the beauty of whatever may 
seem beautiful in thee, must descend upon thee from 
heaven. Thou deemest, blind as thou art, that thy 
Prince ts an angel of light. Thou knowest not that 
he fell long ago like lightning from heaven, that the 
Lord has broken his staff and his sceptre,and cast him 
down to the ground. Believe this, O world! believe 
in the Lord whom thou hast crucified: believe in His 
pure and perfect righteousness: believe and know full 
surely that thy Prince, whom thou worshipest, hast — 
been cast down into hell. Then shalt thou be at rest 


OF THE COMFORTER. 185 


and be quiet; and all the voices of thy nations shall 
break forth into singing. 

Such is the message which the Church in her pro- 
phetical character, is charged to proclaim to the 
world. It is a message akin to that which was com- 
mitted to the prophets of old. They too were com- 
manded to cry against the sins of the world: they 
were commanded to call man to faith in Jehovah 
and in His righteousness: they were commanded to 
denounce the judgments of God against all manner 
of iniquity. The words too in which the prophets 
uttered their message, are still in great part suited to 
the message which the Church has to deliver to the 
world. Only the ancient prophets had to speak of 
things which as then were merely foreknown and 
predetermined in the eternal counsels of God, but 
which had not yet clothed themselves in the garb of 
Time, or become embodied in such a form as to be 
distinctly perceivable by man: they could merely be 
descried by man so far as he was allowed to stand 
on the holy mountain, from which the eyes of the 
Allseeing look out into the abyss of the future. The 
Church on the other hand, in her prophetical office, 
has to speak of that which she has heard, and seen 
with her eyes, which she has looked upon, and her 
hands have handled, of the Word of Life. She 
speaks of sin, which has been, and still is, which for 
ages held mankind under the spiritual palsy of unbe- 
lief, but which may now be overcome through Him 
who came to this very end, that we might believe in 
Him, as the express Image of the Eternal Father. 
She speaks of a righteousness, which has been, and 
still is, which was manifested upon earth when 

16 * 


186 THE THREEFOLD CONVICTION 


Christ dwelt in the form of a man, sinless in a world 
of sin, and which was certified by the seal of the All- 
righteous, when He was exalted to the right hand of 
God, of a righteousness which He obtained, not for 
Himself, but for the unrighteous race of man, which 
He has given to the whole multitude of His saints 
ever since He went up into heaven, and which He 
still gives and ever will give to all such as seek it 
with the earnest prayer of faith, until that day when 
the twilight of this world’s existence shall have past 
away for ever, and the Sun of Righteousness shall 
drive the darkness of unrighteousness into the neth- 
ermost caverns of hell. She speaks of a judgment 
whereby the Prince of this world has already been 
judged. She declares to mankind that a Man has 
lived upon earth, a Man like themselves, born of a 
woman, over whom the Prince of this world had no 
power, who overcame him with all his temptations, 
and who thereby showed to mankind how they too 
may overcome the Prince of this world; for that his 
sway is only over those who obstinately linger in their 
soul-crushing unbelief; but that, for those who will 
fight against him in faith, he has been overcome, so 
that they too shall overcome him. ‘Thus her voice 
has far greater power than that of the prophets who 
lived before the coming of our Lord; and through the 
working of the Comforter, inspiring her words, it pro- 
duces a living conviction in the hearts of those who 
listen to it in faith. And as no one can come to 
Christ with a sincere devotion of heart and mind, until 
this threefold conviction has been wrought in him, 
this is still, as it was at the first, the universal prepa- 


OF THE COMFORTER. 187 


ration of the world, and of every individual soul, for 
the reception of the life of Christ. 

But further, while the work of the Comforter in the 
world was not a work to be wrought once for all at 
the beginning of the New Dispensation, and to be 
then left to propagate itself, and to spring up self- 
sown, with no other husbandry than that of man, — 
inasmuch as, had this been the case, it would not 
have outlasted a single generation; while it is a work 
which the Spirit is continually performing anew in 
all parts of the earth, calling generation after genera- 
tion out of the misery of their sins and the darkness 
of their unbelief, and striving to convince generation 
after generation of the righteousness of Christ, and of 
the judgment which has fallen upon the Prince of 
this world; so on the other hand it will never be suf- 
ficient for the establishment of any sin gle soul in faith 
and in righteousness, if the Comforter merely comes 
to it once to work His conviction once for all in it. 
Ere long the conviction would grow dim and fade 
away: nor can this be averted, unless the impression 
be perpetually renewed by the same Divine Hand. 
We cannot advance uninterruptedly in our spiritual, 
any more than in our bodily life, from one degree of 
brightness to another. The shadow of the earth will 
ever and anon fling the darkness of night over us; 
sleep will creep upon us; we flag and grow weaty, 
and yield to it; and we should sleep on self-indulg- | 
ently, unless we were awakened again and again by / 
the light of the Sun of Righteousness, piercing through | 
our night, and bursting the bands of our sleep. There 
should indeed be a progress in our spiritual life: else 


188 THE THREEFOLD CONVICTION 


that life, even though it be more than visionary, will 
too plainly be giving way before the manifold influ- 
ences which try to check and destroy it. But our 
progress, so long as we continue in the flesh, will 
never be unbroken; nor shall we make any real pro- 
gress at all, without fresh impulses from the Power 


\ which first set us in motion. Our noon should keep 


it 


on growing brighter and brighter: but it will only do 
so when we live under a perpetual dawn, when new 
influxes of light are ever pouring upon us from the 
same celestial Fountain. For, as it is a law of all 
life, that every creature, while it is the offspring of all 
former generations, shall yet have a new germ of life 
in itself, so, in our moral life, every act is at once the 
result of our whole previous moral being, and springs 
immediately and freshly from the will. ‘Thus every 
act is a link in a chain, which stretches back to the 
origin of our consciousness, and the first link of a new 
chain, which will reach through our whole future ex- 
istence ; and according as philosophers have fixed their 
minds on one of these views, or on the other, they 
have asserted the necessity or the freedom of human 
actions ; exemplifying how speculation, when it rushes 
on, without looking around, in a straight path of sim- 
ple logical deduction, is sure to lose itself ere long in 
a vacuum of abstractions: whereas it should contin- 
ually bend the line of its march by a careful compar- 
ison with the realities which experience sets before 
it, shaping its course hereby into an orbit; and then 
it will return to the point from which it started, reach- 
ing it again from an opposite side, and thus gaining 
the assurance that its conclusions were not partial 
and premature. And as in our moral, so in our spir- 


OF THE COMFORTER. 189 


itual life, no moment stands alone. There is no mo- 
ment in it, which is not connected by indissoluble 
ties of motive and impulse with all that we have hith- 
erto felt and thought and done. At the same time 
no moment in it will have any true spiritual energy, 
unless we are immediately prompted and animated 
by the lifegiving Spirit of God. 

Hence it is not enough for us to be convinced of 
the sin of unbelief once for all, even though that ¢on- 
viction be the work of the Comforter. When a body 
is put in motion, we know, unless its motion were 
checked by a number of retarding forces, it would con- 
tinue to move on without limit; but we know no less 
surely that these retarding forces will soon lay hand 
on it and arrest it. So we might fancy that, when 
the soul is once lifted up from the earth, and _pro- 
jected into the free atmosphere of faith, it would con- 
tinue to soar into the heaven of heavens, nor rest until 
it reached the throne of God. But we know too well 
that this is not so, that it gravitates to the world of 
the senses, and that it has a leaden weight of selfwill 
bearing it downward. Our senses and our carnal ap- 
petites are ever whispering and muttering and shout- 
ing to us, that the only realities are those which we 
can see and hear and touch and taste and smell, and 
that it is idleness and folly to give up these solid, 
substantial delights for the dreamy phantoms and 
spectres of faith: and our selfwill cleaves pertina- 
ciously to the world where we are lords and masters, 
and shrinks from that into which it cannot enter ex- 
cept by a sacrifice of itself. Against these hindrances 
we cannot even strive, much less rise above them, 
unless the Comforter be continually helping us on- 


reson ae 


190 THE THREEFOLD CONVICTION 


ward, by convincing us more and more deeply of the 
sin of not believing in Christ. Hence he who truly 
believes, the stronger his faith in the unseen world 
may be, with the greater humiliation will he deplore 
his own inability to live in an unwavering commu- 
nion with it, and to subdue the temptations which 
would draw him away from it; the more earnestly 
will he cry, Lord, £ believe; help Thou my unbelief. 
Thus the union of opposites in our nature will con- 
tinually display itself under the form of what the un- 
derstanding deems to be contradictions; of which we 
may continue almost unconscious, so long as we 
merely disport ourselves among the superficial ap- 
pearances of this world, but which come out more 
and more numerously and distinctly, the wider our 
eyes are opened to discern spiritual realities. 

Again, as our growth in faith is sure to increase 
our conviction of unbelief, and of our need of the 
ever present help of the Comforter to overcome that 
unbelief, in like manner our conviction of Christ’s right- 
eousness must needs deepen our conviction of our 
own unrighteousness, and of our utter inability to 
overcome it without the constant aid of the same 
heavenly Ally. For this conviction also would soon 
stagnate or dry up, unless it be evermore renewed 
and replenished from its everflowing Source. Our 
own righteousness, the righteousness of this world, 
rises up before our eyes, and tries to hide and sup- 
plant the righteousness of Christ. We are ever too 
prone to believe that we have already attained; and 


thus we slip back from that righteousness which comes 


to us through faith in Christ, to a righteousness of 
our own, which is of the Law. Nor is there any se- 


OF THE COMFORTER. 191 


curity against this delusion, save in fashioning our- 
selves, so far as we may, after the example of the 
great Apostle of righteousness, forgetting the things 
which are behind, and reaching forward to the things 
which are still before us, under a contrite acknowl- 
edgment that our whole spiritual life is nought, ex- 
cept so far as it issues straight from the Spirit of God. 
So too it would never be enough for us, if the 
Comforter merely vouchsafed once for all to convince 
us that the Prince of this world has been judged. 
For although he has been judged most certainly and 
completely, it is only for the children of God, for those 
who go forth to the battle against him with the as- 
surance that they are so, and that their Father is with 
them. ‘The children of this world are still under its 
Prince, and still pay him honor and worship: in their 
eyes he still wears his royal robes and crown. Hence, 
so long as we abide in this intermediate state, doubt- 
ful about our true parentage, — so long as we think it 
possible that there can be any good apart from God, 
— the Prince of this world will ever and anon come 
to us: and as he who was a liar from the beginning, 
will continue a liar until the end, he tells us that he 
has not been judged, that he is still the sole Prince, 
the absolute sovereign of this world, and that he will 
give us the kingdoms of this world, and their glory, 
and their beauty, and their pleasure, if we will only 
fall down and worship him. We saw that the con- 
dition of those who have been convinced of judg-— 
ment, is analogous to that of the Israelites, when they 
were delivered from the bondage and from the flesh- 
pots of Egypt, and had seen the host of Pharaoh 
overthrown in the Red Sea, and were journeying 


192 THE THREEFOLD CONVICTION 


through the Wilderness toward the Land of Promise. 
Yet even after they had been thus wondrously and 
mercifully delivered, even after they had been the wit- | 
nesses of this terrific overthrow, many hearts amongst 
them failed amid the privations of the wilderness; 
many longed to go back into Egypt, to go back to their 
fleshpots, forgetting the bondage attached to them, 
or even thinking that bondage desirable for the sake 
of such enjoyments. In the midst of the wilderness 
too the Prince of this world still came to them with 
the temptations of Baalpeor. Nay, did he not per- 
suade some that the manna itself was his gift, and 
that, as such, they must hoard it up, until it stank? 
and did he not at another time move the whole mul- 
titude to loathe it? just as he still is so often able, by 
pampering our sensual, to deaden our spiritual appe- 
tite, so that our heavenly food becomes stale and flat 
and tasteless to us. Even when our Lord Himself 
was upon earth in the form of a man, the Prince of 
this world, although he had been so utterly baffled, 
as a foretaste of the judgment which awaited him, 
only departed from Him for a season. And as he as- 
sailed the Head, so has he unweariably been assail- 
ing the whole body of the Church with all manner of 
crafty snares, as we see from the very first in the sin 
of Ananias, and in that of Simon Magus. Nor is his 
malice less in these days, or his subtilty, or his assi- 
duity. He is ever lying in wait to assail every indi- 
vidual member of that Church, which can only be 
built of the spoils wrested from him, and which he is 
ceaselessly laboring to undermine and destroy. We 
cannot need to look back to the history of David and 
of Solomon, — surely we shall find ample evidence in 


OF THE COMFORTER. 193 


our own hearts, —to prove to us that, however we 
may at any time have been convinced of judgement, 
still the Prince of this world does not allow us to re- 
main quietly in that conviction; that he will try to 
drive or to lure us out of it, at one time with some 
new form of sin, the deceitfulness and misery of which 
we have not already found out,—at other times, it 
may be, with those very sins, the bitterness of which 
we have already tasted, and over which we fancy we 
have triumphed. For we are never safe: the very 
stubble of our old sins may run into our eyes and 
blind us; the dregs of them may choke us; the ashes 
of them may kindle again and consume us. There- 
fore do we always need the present help of the Com- 
forter, in order that His conviction may not pass 
away and be eflaced, but may abide in our souls full 
of life and power; so that the Prince of this world 
may be judged in us and-by us also, even as he was 
judged by our Lord. 

In fact this is one of the main differences between 
a speculative and a practical conviction. For the 
former it is enough if we have been convinced of a 
truth once: the conviction will abide with us. Tt 
may lie dormant for a long time in the storehouse of 
our thoughts; but there, when we need it, we shall 
find it; and it will be just as serviceable as ever. 
For no contrary forces are drawing us away from it, 
or striving to quench and suppress it. But with 
regard to our practical convictions all this is other- 
wise, ‘They cost us many a hard struggle, in the 
first instance to gain them, then to retain our hold on 
them, and above all to carry them into act. For the 
power of the world is around us, acting upon us 

17 7 


194 THE THREEFOLD CONVICTION 


by our senses, by our appetites, by our feelings, by 
our circumstances, by our companions, by habit, by 
opinion, and endeavoring in all these ways to infect 
us with its own changefulness. Its stream is ever 
bearing us along, and would never allow us to take 
our stand on any firm ground of consistent principle: 
it would have us do as others do, drift on at the ca- 
price of its ever-varying impulses. Moreover a prac- 
tical principle requires practice to strengthen it, and 
even to keep it alive. Unless it be carried into act, 
it sickens and wastes away: words, if its sole utter- 
ance be in them, drain its lifeblood from it: practice 
alone can make it a consubstantial part of our souls. 
Indeed the purpose of every conviction is to produce 
belief: it is not meant to lie as a dead proposition 
at the top of our minds, but to be embodied in them 
among our principles of thought: and when the con- 
viction is the work of the Spirit, it must produce 
faith, that is, a belief which is received as a principle, 
not merely by the understanding, but also by the 
heart and the will, a belief which becomes a princi- 
ple, not merely of thought, but also of hfe and 
action. Thus, if we are convinced of sin by any 
other teacher, our conviction will vent itself in 
empty words, and we shall remain contentedly in 
our sin; but if the conviction be the work of the 
Comforter, we shall desire and yearn to come out of 
our sin, and to cast it away. Thus again, if our 
conviction of righteousness be the work of the Com- 
forter, we shall not deem it enough to contemplate 
and admire and extol, the righteousness of Christ; 
we shall seek to make it our own, by such means as 
the Comforter shall vouchsafe to manifest to us for 


OF THE COMFORTER. 195 


doing so. And in like manner, if our conviction of 
judgment be wrought in us by the Comforter, it will 
not satisfy us to know that the Prince of this world 
was judged long since, when our Saviour gave Him- 
self up a Sacrifice on the Cross for the sins of the 
world; we shall desire that we also may be enabled 
to judge him, that in our lives also he may be 
judged (a c). 

The conviction of sin, we have seen, when it is 
wrought in us by the Comforter, leads us to seek 
that pardon and remission of sins, Which Christ be- 
stows on His people; and as the special sin, of 
which the Comforter convinces us, is that of not be- 
lieving in Christ, in so doing He brings us out of 
our unbelief to faith, and makes us desire and pray 
to have our faith strengthened. The conviction of 
righteousness, when it is the work of the Comforter, 
makes us seek to be clothed in the righteousness of 
Christ, and thus is preparatory to our justification. 
The two acts, as I have said before, may be coin- 
stantaneous; but in idea they are distinct. So 
again, the conviction of judgment, when it is the 
work of the Spirit, is preparatory to our sanctifica- 
tion. ‘The judgment with which our Lord judged 
the Prince of this world, may be regarded as two- 
fold: it was a judgment of absolute and entire 
condemnation; and it was a judgment of utter over- 
throw and confusion. He at once passed and exe- 
cuted the sentence of condemnation against the 
Prince of this world, condemned him as worthy of 
hell, and cast him into hell. As in His temptation 
Christ baflled the ‘Tempter, by exposing the hollow- 
ness and deceitfulness of all his wiles and lures, so 


196 THE THREEFOLD CONVICTION 


that the Tempter was rebuked and departed from 
Him, in like manner does Christ’s whole life expose 
the hollowness and deceitfulness of sin. His whole 
life condemns sin, by bringing it to the light, so that 
its real nature and character is discerned, by strip- 
ping it of its masks and disguises, by laying it bare 
under all its forms, by showing how false it is, how 
delusive, how hateful, how deadly, how in all its 
forms it is enmity against God, and therefore misery 
and desolation and despair, how the worm is spread 
under it, and the worm covers it. The judgment 
against the Prince of this world was indeed com- 
pleted and consummated by the Sacrifice on the 
Cross. As the Crucifixion however was not the 
whole of the sacrifice offered up by Christ for the 
sins of the world, but only its closing, perfecting 
act,—as the whole of our Saviour’s life, from the 
humiliation of His Incarnation down to that still 
deeper humiliation, when He, who had humbled 
Himself that He might enter into life in the shape 
of an innocent babe, humbled Himself still more 
that He might pass through the gates of death with 
the agony and the shame of sin, was one continual 
sacrifice for sin, —so was it one continual warfare 
against sin, and victory over sin, and judgment 
against sin. What the law could not do, in that it 
was weak by reason of our carnal nature, God, send- 
ing Ns own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, for 
_ the sake of sin, condemned sin in the flesh, in order 
that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in 
us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 
For the craft and subtilty of the Prince of this 
world, the craft and subtilty which was the ground 


OF THE COMFORTER. 197 


of his power, consisted mainly in this, that, having 
first beguiled men into giving up their hearts to this 
world, he then persuaded them that he was the ab- 
solute disposer of all the good things of this world, 
that he alone had the power of bestowing them, and 
that he would bestow them on such alone as paid 
him hovaage and allegiance, and sought’ them from 
him, by the means which he pointed out to them. 
He persuaded them that the kingdom of this world 
and the power of this world and the giory of this 
world were the noblest objects which man could aim 
at, and that they were his to give and to withhold, 
so that, unless these prizes were sought through him, 
there was no chance of gaining them. Nor were his 
persuasions vain. ‘That these are indeed the highest 
objects of human endeavor, was almost universally 
believed, not as a mere abstract proposition, but 
with a thorough faith, which shrank from no exer- 
tions, from no difficulties, from no dangers, for the 
sake of attaining to them. Even the Jews, along 
with the rest of mankind, lay under this delusion ; 
nor were our Lord’s chosen disciples wholly free 
from it, so long as He continued here below. ' ‘hey 
did not understand how the Prince of this world had 
already been judged, how in truth he had been 
judged from the very beginning, together with his 
kingdom. They still looked and sought for an 
earthly kingdom, for earthly power and earthly 
glory; only they deemed that their Master was the 
Prince, from whom they were to receive these covet- 
ed rewards. They could not make out, any more 
than Pilate, how He could be a King, and yet that 
His Kingdom should not be of this world. Our 
Pas 


198 THE THREEFOLD CONVICTION 


Lord on the other hand declared that the true king- 
dom, the true power, and the true glory, belong not 
to the Prince of this world, but to the Father, and 
that, as belonging to the Father, they also belong to 
the Son: and the great purpose of His life was to 
show forth what that true Kingdom, the Kingdom 
of Heaven, is, and wherein that true power, wherein 
that true glory lies. 

Thus through His whole life did Christ judge the 
Prince of this world. When He, who was born 
King of the Jews, was born in the stable at Bethle- 
hem, and when the shepherds in the fields were 
called to be the first’ witnesses of His birth, then was 
the Prince of this world judged: and this judgment 
was made manifest in that he, whom the Prince of 
this world had set upon the throne of Judea, was so 
greatly troubled at the tidings, and tried to frustrate 
the purpose of God by the massacre of the children 
in Bethlehem. Hereby the Prince of this world laid 
bare the hell that boiled in his breast; and though 
he sent forth the fiercest and bloodiest of his servants 
to establish his throne, he was utterly foiled. When 
He, who came to fulfil all righteousness, submitted 
to be baptized by John, the greater by the less, the 
sinless by the sinful, God by man, then was the 
| Prince of this world judged. Then was man taught 
not to seek his own glory and his own righteousness, 
put the glory and the righteousness of God, — not to 
seek to be first, but to be last: and therefore were 
the heavens opened, and the voice from heaven 
heard, saying, This is My beloved Son, in whom fam 
well pleased. Then was the Prince of this world 
judged, then was the serpent’s head bruised by the 


OF THE COMFORTER. 199 


Seed of the woman, when a Man walked on the | 
earth in whom the Father was well pleased. Again: 
in the whole course of our Lord’s temptation the 
Prince of this world was judged: he was judged in 
all that his most powerful, and till then well nigh 
uresistible, lures were scattered at once by being 
brought to the light of God’s word. Throughout 
the whole Sermon on the Mount the Prince of this 
world is judged. His most vaunted blessings are 
declared to be woes; his woes, the very things 
which he had made men account mean and abject 
and miserable and hateful, are declared to be blessed. 
Every time that Christ forgave sins, the Prince of 
‘this world was judged. It was proclaimed in the 
sight of Heaven, God Himself bearing witness, that 
a Man was walking upon the earth, mightier than 
the Prince of this world, and who could wrest his 
subjects and his captives even out of his nethermost 
prison: and men were taught how they might obtain 
this deliverance, how they might burst the galling 
yoke which the Prince of this world had fastened 
round their necks,—by faith. By every miracle 
which Christ wrought, the Prince of this world was 
judged. In that He cast cut devils by the Spirit of 
God, it was proved that the Kingdom of God had 
come upon mankind, and that among the sons of 
men there was One, who had bound the strong man, 
and was spoiling his goods: and when the devils 
took refuge in the herd of swine, and ran down the 
precipice into the lake, then was it shown what is 
sin’s only congenial abode, its only rightful doom. 
Moreover by every grace in our Lord’s character the 
Prince of this world was judged,—by His meek- 


200 THE THREEFOLD CONVICTION 


ness, by His lowliness, by His patience, by his for- 
bearance, by His infinite loving-kindness, by His 
perseverance in well-doing, by His spotless purity, by 
His zeal in working the works of Tis Father, by His 
never seeking His own glory, but always the glory 
of God, by every deed and every word wherein He 
showed that the Fulness of the Godhead was 
dwelling upon earth. Each of these graces exposed 
the spuriousness and deformity of the counterfeit or 
opposite, which the Prince of this world had set up 
to have dominion over the hearts of mankind. Of 
the manner in which the judgment on the Prince of 
this world was consummated on the Cross, I have 
spoken already. And then, when he had thus been 
finally overthrown, Death, the last enemy, was also 
subdued: its sting was torn from it; and the victory 
of the grave was converted into the victory of Him 
who was laid in the grave; a victory gained, not for} 
Himself, but for all in all ages who shall be laid in 
the grave, clothed in His righteousness, after having : , 
manifested in their lives how the Prince of this world, | 
is judged. For all such, Death is judged, so as 
wholly to change his nature, and to become the 
giver of eternal life, taking away the burden of sin- 
ful flesh, and the delusive mists of the world, from 
those who have been sanctified by the Spirit, and 
unsealing their eyes to behold, and their hearts to 
worship and rejoice in, the glory of the living God. 
In all these manifold ways, do they who are con- 
vinced of judgment by the Comforter, perceive that 
the Prince of this world has been judged. And 
what ensues? Will they follow him into his judg- 
ment? Will they desire to share in his condemna- 


eee 


OF THE COMFORTER. 201 


tion? to be confounded along with him in his con- 
fusion? Surely this cannot be. They who have 
been truly convinced of judgment, will no longer 
cleave to that, which, they know, their Saviour has 
condemned: they will no longer walk in the train of 
him, whom their Master has overcome and cast out. 
Feelings of honor, of justice, of compassion, may | 
sometimes urge a man to uphold the cause of the— 
vanquished, But here all honor and right and mer.» 
cy are united on the side of the Victor: and the. 
victory consists in this, that the shame of sin has 
been unveiled, that its hatefulness has been disclosed, 
and men’s eyes have been opened to discern its mal- 
ice and its cruelty, its falsehood and its woe. They 
whose eyes have been thus opened must needs 
loathe and turn away from sin. In the conscious- 
ness of their own weakness they will shun it, and 
never run rashly into temptation: but, when it 
comes across their path, they will fight against it 
without being dismayed, in the strength of Him, 
who, they know, has overcome it. As Christ con- 
demned sin, so will all His faithful servants con- 
demn sin. They will condemn it in the world, but 
still more in their own hearts; for, until they have 
condemned it in themselves, in vain will they try to 
condemn it in the world. And as Christ overcame 
sin, so will all His soldiers strive to overcome sin, 
first in themselves, and then in the world, —to over- 
come it in themselves, by casting it out from them- 
selves, and purifying themselves from it,—and in 
hike manner to overcome it in the world, by doing 
what they can to cast it out from the world, and to 
purify the world from its pestilential contagion. But 


202 THE THREEFOLD CONVICTION 


here also the right order must be observed. We 
may dream that it would be a grand and glorious 
work, to overcome sin in the world: we may think 
of sallying out on such an enterprise for the sake of 
magnifying ourselves by it: all efforts, however, di- 
rected towards such an end will be vain, until we 
have gone through the far more painful and toilsome 
task of overcoming sin in ourselves. Without this 
preparatory discipline we shall soon grow faint and 
falter: and double shame and bitterness must needs 
await him, who, having preached to others, himself 
becomes a castaway. | 

Lhe Comforter convinces the world of judgment, 
because the Prince of this world has been judged. 
Has the Prince of this world been judged (av)? The 
Comforter, who is the Spirit of truth, cannot con- 
vince of any thing except the truth; wherefore it is 
most certain that the Prince of this world has been 
judged. And-yet ...and yet...when we cast 
our eyes abroad over the face of the earth,— when 
we bethink ourselves of what has been going on from 
the beginning, and is still going on in every part of 
it, from the royal palace down to the cottage of the 
husbandman, — when we call to mind what we see 
and hear and read of every day, what purposes men 
are professing, what objects they are pursuing undis- 
guisedly, as though no question could be entertained 
about their propriety and worthiness, — when we pry 
into our own hearts, and look searchingly back over 
our past lives, and ask ourselves what our motives 
and aims have been and are, what our plans and de- 
sires have been and are, and where our affections are 
and have been placed,— can we truly affirm that, 


iiss: 


OF THE COMFORTER. 203 


according to the evidence which may be drawn from 
the history of the last eighteen centuries, and from 
the present state of the world, and according to the 
witness borne by our own hearts and minds, the 
Prince of this world has been judged? Has he been | 
so condemned, that all the world has united to con- 
demn him? Has he been so cast out, that all the 
world has cast him out? Has the great majority, 
has any considerable portion of the world, condemned 
him and cast him out? Has he been condemned and 
cast out from the councils of kings? from senates? 
from armies and navies? from the counting-house 
and the market-place? Has he been condemned and 
cast out from our manufactories? Has he been wholly 
condemned and cast out even from our schools and 
colleges and universities? Or, to narrow the sphere 
of our inquiries, have we ourselves, each one of us, 
condemned him and cast him out? Do we know and 
feel that he has been judged and condemned and cast 
out by our Lord and Saviour? and do we, under this 
conviction, condemn him and cast him out from our 
own hearts and minds utterly and altogether, so that 
he has no part in them, no hold upon them, that he 
never sways our thoughts, never stirs our desires? 
Have we set ourselves resolutely to eschew all man- 
ner of evil, to hate whatever is hateful before God. 
and to love nothing save what is well pleasing in His 
all-holy sight? Alas! Iam afraid, if we speak the 
truth, we shall be forced to confess that in this, as in 
all other things, there is still a broad and glaring con- 
tradiction between the order of the world and that 
order which Christ has appointed and established for 
His Church. Contrariety and contradiction to the 


204 THE THREEFOLD CONVICTION 


order and ordinances of heaven is still the course of 
this world, as it always has been, ever since that word 
No, — that word which had never been uttered in the 
courts of heaven until the spirit of pride lifted itself 
up in rebellion against God,— that word which is 
ever echoing back in endless repercussion through the 
howling caverns of hell, — first disturbed the all-con- 
senting harmony of the universe. Hence it has come 
to pass that in all parts of the earth, wherever assem- 
blages of men have been gathered together, there has 
always been a tumultuous jarring of contending voices, 
ebbing and flowing, rolling to and fro, affirming and 
denying, as though the body of Truth were divided, 
as though Evil were Good, and Good Evil, and as 
though it were impossible to determine conclusively 
what is, and what is not. Still thus much is most 
certain: for the true spiritual Church, built of those 
lively stones that offer up spiritual sacrifices accepta- 
ble to God through Jesus Christ, —for those who, 
having a living faith in Christ, endeavor to walk in 
the blessed steps of His all-holy life, the Prince of this 
world has been judged. But so far as the world still 
continues to exist unsanctified by the Church, witha 
heart closed against the conviction and the other in- 
. fluences of the Comforter, the Prince of this world 
has not been judged: or at least the world knows 
nothing of the judgment which has befallen him, but 
seats him on the throne of its heart, and bows down 
to him as blindly as ever. It sets up Dagon again | 
and again, and will even worship the stump of Dagon, | 
rather than believe that he has been judged. Nay, 
has not the Prince of this world often entered into 
the very temple of the Lord who judged him? has he 


OF THE COMFORTER. 205 


not set up the abomination of desolation even in the 
holy place? And when he does so enter there, his 
words are ever, that he has not been judged, that he 
has not been condemned and cast out, that God has 
made peace with him, that we may worship him, and. - 
yet worship God also, that we may serve him with 
the best part of our hearts, and that the poorest rem- 
nant of our service will find acceptance with God. 
Your thoughts will have recurred of themselves to 
that dismal period in the history of the Church, when 
the Prince of this world put forth all his craft, and far 
too successfully, to prove that he had not been judged, 
—nay, when for generations he seemed almostto have 
usurped the dominion of the Church,—and when 
those faithful servants of Christ, who desired to en- 
force and execute their Lord’s judgment against him, 
were many of them driven out, as in older times, to 
wander in deserts and mountains, and in dens and 
caves of the earth. It was an awful spectacle then, 
to see how the flesh was in almost all things quench- 
ing and stifling the spirit, not merely, as it ever does, 
in the groves and high places of the world, but even 
in what ought to have been the courts of the house 
of God. Fora time had arrived when the Church 
had entered into alliance with the world: Herod had 
said that he would come and worship the King of the 
Jews; and she believed him. But when Herod, when 
the Prince of this world, pretends to worship, it is 
only with the purpose of destroying more subtily and 
effectually. Trained as he is in all falsehood, he will 
readily mock the form of worship, if he can thereby 
empty that form of its spirit; as he did so wofully 
among the Pharisees in Judea, and as he is ever striv- 


18 


206 THE THREEFOLD CONVICTION 


ing to do, when an inordinate attention is paid to the 
outward acts of religion. And when the Prince of 
this world has persuaded men that he has not been 
judged, his next step has ever been to subvert the 
Comforter’s conviction of righteousness, by making 
them believe that they may have a righteousness of 
their own, and do not need the righteousness of 
Christ. Whence, by a natural progression, he further 
undermines the conviction of sin, and shakes all faith 
in the divine nature and office of Christ. By a like 
process, in an age of literary pride and epicureanism, 
he lures his victims through the moonlit mazes of 
_ Natural Religion, into the dark, chaotic night of Pan- 
theism; in which, confounding all moral distinctions, 
he cheats men into supposing that there is nothing 
' excellent, except power. 

But it is not solely when the Church enters into 
an open alliance with the world, that the Prince of 
this world attempts to persuade men that he has not 
been judged. Even when our Lord Himself, the 
Fulness of the Wisdom and Holiness of the Father, 
was upon earth, the Tempter came to Him, and 
would fain have deceived Him. Nor has there ever 
been a state of the Church, in which the Prince of — 
this world has left her unassailed: nor can we expect 
that the Church ever will be in such a state, until 
that day when he, who was judged on Calvary, will 
be cast out altogether from God’s world, and will 
sink into the bottomless pit of his own misery and 
despair. ‘Thus, whenever a spirit of more fervent 
zeal has breathed through the Church,— when the 
preachers of the Gospel have been animated with a 
deeper conviction of the sin of the world, when they 


OF THE COMFORTER. 207 


have seen more clearly how that sin is rooted in un- 
belief, and when they have been more earnest in 
calling their hearers to seek that righteousness, 
which can only be receivedas the free gift of grace 
to faith,-— at such times the Prince of this world has © 
ever been busy in sending his emissaries abroad to 
persuade men that, as the righteousness of Christ, 
which is given to faith, is a free gift, no way to be 
earned by any works on the part of the receiver, it 
cannot matter in the least what our works are, — 
that to be scrupulous about our moral conduct is a 
symptom of self-righteousness,— and that the best 
mode of showing our entire reliance on Christ’s 
righteousness, and our thorough contempt for all that 
man can do, is to keep on living in sin, without pre- 
suming to set up any light of our own by the side of 
the Sun of Righteousness. Errors of this kind had 
sprung up and grown rank even in the lifetime of 
the great Apostle of righteousness, constraining him 
to warn men against the blasphemous delusion, that 
they were to continue in sin, in order that grace 
might abound. Jn like manner, when Luther took 
up the apostolic trumpet, and startled the nations, 
and roused the Church out of her slumber, by pro- 
claiming the same primary doctrine, that man is 
justified by faith alone, without the works of the 
Law, the Prince of this world again tried to mock 
the voice of truth, and said, Ay! without the works 
of the Law; therefore trample the Law under foot, 
lest thy works should interfere with thy faith. Hence 
one of the great contests which the heroic Reformer 
had to wage through the chief part of his life, was 
against the Antinomian errors whereby the Prince of 


208 THE THREEFOLD CONVICTION 


this world tried to hinder and pervert the Gospel of 
righteousness. Sometimes too, as man, when driven 
out of one error, is sadly prone to rush into its oppo- 
site, even they who have clearly discerned how the 
righteousness of God has been manifested to the 
world in the incarnation and death of His Son, and 
who have been earnestly desirous of magnifying 
Christ in their own lives, have yet been misled by 
an over-anxious fear of ascribing any thing to hu- 
man merit, into speaking disparagingly of that duti- 
ful obedience, which the redeemed servants of Christ, 
the adopted children of God, are bound to pay to 
their Master and Father. But never, by no single 
word, does St. Paul countenance such a delusion ; 
never, I believe, does Luther, if we weigh his words 
fairly, with a due attention to the context, and to 
the uniform tenor of his teaching. It is true, Luther 
is perpetually inveighing, with the utmost vehemence 
of condemnation, against that deadly heresy of good 
works, which was then spread over the Church, pol- 
soning the sources of its life. Now in reading such 
passages, if we forget that the good works which he 
is thus reprobating, consisted mainly in formal acts 
of worship and outward penances and mortifications, 
performed as an expiation for sin, under the notion 
of their being meritorious, we may easily fancy that 
his expressions are derogatory to morality ; more 
especially if, with ears unused to any louder sound 
than that of academic argument, we come on a sud- 
den within the thunder of his battle-cry. Neverthe- 
less, so marvellously clear was his insight into the 
fundamental principles of Christian doctrine, — so 
thoroughly had he been convinced, above all other 


* 


OF THE COMFORTER. 209 


men, it would seem, since the apostolic age, of sin 
and of righteousness and of judgment by the Com- 
forter, — that one may feel some degree of confi- 
dence in asserting, that he never, —even in those 
writings which he poured forth almost wave aiter. 
wave, and ray after ray, according to the exigencies 
of the Church, for so many years, 
which, if candidly and rightly interpreted, with a due 
regard to the occasion and circumstances, is repug- 
nant to the truth on this head. Or at all events, if 
a curious research may discover certain expressions 


said any thing 


here and there, in which, when contending against 
the Pelagian errors of the Romish Church, he has 
not been careful enough so to measure and limit his 
expressions, as to keep them from impinging on the 
proximate portions of the truth, justice would re- 
quire that, before we make him an offender for a 
word, we should compare what we may deem ob- 
jectionable, with the glowing exhortations to bring 
forth the fruits of love, in which his writings abound. 
If we do so, we shall find that, while no preacher of 
the Gospel has been more energetic in denouncing 
that noxious error which considers good words as 
the ground of justification, few have been so earnest 
and eloquent in enforcing the necessity of good 
works as the fruits of faith and love, and as a testi- 
mony that the Prince of this world has been judged. 

This form of error, however, is not one which has 
ever gained much currency in the higher and better 
educated classes of society. The deep and strong 
religious feeling, which must accompany it, if 1t be 
sincere, will seldom be found without some force of 


character and of intellect: and this in our days will 
ifs a 


™ 


210 THE THREEFOLD CONVICTION 


keep a person, who has gone through a course of 
scholastic discipline, from running into the extrava- 
gances of Antinomianism. But the Prince of this 
world, we may be sure, will also have his devices for 
ensnaring those who may seem to belong more es- 
pecially to his empire, those who, from their more 
conspicuous station, and from the influence they ex- 
ercise over their brethren, are not seldom by way of 
eminence denominated the world. The delusion 
which in these days he is the fondest of, and which 
the world is much readier to swallow, is one whereby 
it is pampered in its indolent carelessness and self- 
indulgence, and whereby it is in like manner be- 
guiled into believing that its Prince has not been 


judged, or at least that, if he has, his sentence has 


not been one of condemnation, but acquittal. The 
worldly notion of Christianity will mostly amount to 
something like this, — that it is a scheme of mercy, 
in which God is pleased to show forth His forbear- 


ance and good-nature,— yes, His good-nature,— I 


know no other word so well fitted to express what 
the children of this world regard as the chief attri- 
bute of the Christian God,— in pardoning all except 
very flagrant and outrageous criminals. They look 
upon Christianity,— may I not say so?—as a 
scheme for just paring the claws of sin, and then let- 
ting it run about at will. My young friends, I am 
certain there are many amongst you, who will have 
heard Christianity spoken of in some sch manner 
as this. There are many amongst you, I am certain, 
whose thoughts, when they have been turned toward 
religion, will have lulled themselves to sleep by mut- 
tering, that God has revealed Himself to us Chris- 


OF THE COMFORTER. 211 


tians as a God of mercy, and that this is the great 
difference between our religion and that of the Jews 
and Heathens, —that the knowledge of this consti- 
tutes our special privilege and advantage. Nay, my 
dear friends, are there not some amongst you, who 
are still lying under this miserable and fatal delu- 
sion? are there not some, who still cry Peace to 
your souls, because Christianity is a religion of mer- 
cy? Do I then mean to say that it is not a religion 
of mercy? God forbid! But it is only a religion of 
mercy, because it is also a religion of truth and 
of righteousness. It is a religion of mercy, because 
Mercy in it is met together with Truth. It is a re- 
ligion of peace, because Peace and Righteousness 
have kissed each other in it. Else it would not bea 
religion of mercy. There would be no mercy in 
Christianity, if God had sent His Onlybegotten 
Son into the world, to the end that mankind might 
be allowed to continue in sin. This is the mercy of 
the Spirit of evil. The Spirit of evil would have 
you continue in sin. He would have you go on day 
by day and year by year, heaping sin upon sin, 
wrapping one poisonous fold after another around 
you, quafling one deadly potion after another, until 
your whole head shall be sick, and your whole heart 
faint, and nothing shall remain of you except 
wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. But this 
is the very proof which God has given of His ex- 
ceeding mercy, that He has called you out of your 
sins, that He will not leave you to rot and moulder 
away in them, that he would draw you out of them, 
almost in despite of yourself, by the cords of His 
love, — yea, that He has called you to a communion 


212 THE THREEFOLD CONVICTION 


with Himself, a communion which can only be en- 
joyed in proportion as you become like Him, — that 
He has called you to a share and portion in that 
which is most glorious and excellent in Himself, to 
become holy as He is holy, and pure as He is pure, 
and perfect as He is perfect. Yes, brethren, this is 
the real proof of God’s mercy, that He has com- 
manded you, and will help you, to cast away all 
manner of sin, the least as well as the greatest; for 
nothing can be small or to be disregarded, which 
estranges and cuts you off from God. The world in 
its cruelty tells you that you may be intemperate, 
that you may be licentious, that you may be ambi- 
tious, that you may be neglectful of all your duties 
to God, and of almost all your duties to your fellow 
men, that you may spend your lives in pursuing 


your own pleasure and your own aggrandizement, 


and that all the while you may be respectable and 
estimable and honorable, and may even put in a 
claim for the crowns of earthly glory. This is the 
world’s mercy, or rather its cruelty. A few vices it 
bids you beware of, those which it has been pleased 
to brand with shame. But every other vice you 
may indulge in to your heart’s content, and need 
only take care that you do not hurt yourselves by it. 
God, on the other hand, tells you that you do hurt 
yourselves, that you hurt your immortal souls, by 
every sin you indulge in. For every sin is poison: 
every sin, the least as well as the greatest, tends to 
canker and destroy your souls: every sin breeds 
death, and cuts you off from the communion of the 
blessed. Therefore does God show forth His infi- 
nite merey in calling you away from all manner of 


OF THE COMFORTER. lis 


sin, by sending His Spirit to convince you, not only 
of sin and of righteousness, bui also of judgment, in 
order that you may not be doomed to follow the 
Prince of this world into condemnation, but may be 
fitted more and more for receiving the inheritance | 
which your Saviour has purchased for you, along 
with the saints in light, — that you may rise more 
and more out of the darkness of this world into the 
light of His presence, — and that He may give you 
every blessing and every grace, grace upon grace, 
and blessing upon blessing. Yea, He offers Himself 
to you, His whole beatific fulness: He has given 
you His Onlybegotten Son: He would give you 
His all-holy Spirit, to dwell and abide in you for 
ever. 

God desires, earnestly desires, to give you all these 
blessings. Doubt not, my young friends, that this is 
so. Believe it with an assurance no less lively and 
strong than you feel of your own existence, or of the 
existence of the world around you. It is by doubt, 
by unbelief, that man still, as ever, frustrates God’s 
gracious dealings. Surely we may most reasonably 
trust, that He who sent down His Onlybegotten Son 
to live in the form of a Servant, and to die on the 
Cross for mankind, and who sent down His Spirit 
with such power to the Apostles and the other preach- 
ers of the Gospel in the first ages of the Church, had 
an end very dear to His heart, which he designed to 
accomplish by these mighty means, and for which, if 
I may so speak in all reverence, He made these ines- 
timable, unimaginable sacrifices. And God is not 
man, that He should forget what He once purposed, or 
that He should weary because a work is not readily 


a hes THE THREEFOLD CONVICTION 


concluded, or that He should change His mind and 
cast away what was so precious in His sight. It is 
true, eighteen hundred years have rolled by, since 
Christ offered Himself up on the Cross, and since the 
Comforter came down to the Apostles. But what 
are eighteen hundred years to Him, before whom a 
thousand years areas one day? They are as though 
to-day and to-morrow had passed by with one of the 
sons of men, and the next day were just about to open 
upon him. ‘The laws of nature, as they are called, 
the laws of cohesion and attraction and gravitation, 
the laws of growth and decay, the laws by which the 
suns are kept in their spheres, and the planets in their 
orbits, are the same now as they were eighteen hun- 
dred years ago. Much more does the same unchange- 
ableness inhere in God’s moral laws, in the laws of 
His righteousness and love, which were, when the 
outward world was not, and which will continue after 
the outward world has sunk into its appointed grave. 
Therefore be not doubtful, but stedfastly believe that 
God still purposes to give you all those rich treasures 
of blessings which He gave to our fathers. The Crown 
of the Saviour is still incomplete; the Marriage-feast 
of the Lamb is not yet full: the Comforter is still 
_ gathering jewels for that Crown, and calling guests 
_ to that Feast; and you may all be among those jew- 
els, in the number of those happy guests. In order 
that you may be fitted for these blessings hereafter, 
God still sends His Spirit to all who desire to obtain 
these heavenly prizes. For you can only obtain them 
in one way, in the way which God has ordained, 
which He ordained in the first instance for the whole 
Church, and for the world when it was to be called 


OF THE COMFORTER. 215 


into the Church; and which He still ordains for the 
whole Church, and for every soul incorporated into 
it. You must be convinced of sin, you must be con- 
vinced of righteousness, you must be convinced of 
judgment, with that living, ruling, practical conviction, — 
which the Spirit of God alone can produce. The 
Spirit of God is ready to work that conviction in you, 
in every one of you, — to work it in those in whom it 
has not been wrought already,—to confirm and 
strengthen it in those in whom it has. He who sent 
the Comforter at first to His disciples, still sends Him 
to His Church, and to every member of His Church. 
Yes, brethren, to each and every one of you, Christ 
has sent and will send His Spirit, to convince you of 
sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Only you 
must not close, but open your ears and your hearts 
to receive that conviction; you must not turn away, 
but listen to it, readily, attentively, patiently ; you 
must give heed to it, and endeavor to follow it, to 
obey it, to rule your lives according to it; above all, 
you must beware of resisting it, of quenching it, of 
driving it from you, of doing what it forbids and con- 
demns. You must seek it by prayer, by earnest, fer- 
vent, persevering prayer. You must seek it by fre- 
quent and searching meditation on the truths which 
it reveals to you, on unbelief and faith, on righteous- 
ness and unrighteousness, the unrighteousness of man 
and the righteousness of Christ, and on the victory of 
the Cross whereby the Prince of this world was judged. 
In this, as in all things, you must strive diligently and 
strenuously to act according to the light you have al- 
ready received, in full reliance on the never failing 
promise that to him who has shall be given. And 


216 THE THREEFOLD CONVICTION 


while you study the mysteries which God has de- 
clared to us in the Scriptures, with all your heart and 
all your mind, you must endeavor to make them the 
rule and principle of your lives, and to fashion your- 
selves after that pattern of the mind of God, which 
was made manifest in every word and deed of His 
most blessed Son. 

In the next verse but two after the text, our Lord, 
while still speaking of the coming of the Comforter, 
says, He shall glorify Me; for He shall receive of 
Mine, and shall show it to you. This, we have seen, 


is what the Comforter does through the whole of His : 


threefold work. In every part of it He glorifies Christ. 
In convincing us of sin, He convinces us of the sin of 
not believing in Christ. In convincing us of right- 
ecousness, he convinces us of the righteousness of Christ, 
of that righteousness which was made manifest in 
Christ’s going to the Father, and which he received 
to bestow it on all such as should believe in Him. 
And lastly, in convincing us of judgment, He convinces 
us that the Prince of this world was judged in the life 
and by the death of Christ. Thus throughout Christ 
is glorified; and that which the Comforter shows to 
us relates in all its parts to the life and work of the 
Incarnate Son of God. In like manner all the graces 
which the Spirit bestows, are the graces which were 
manifested in the life of Christ. It is Christ’s love 
that He shows to us and gives to us, the love through 
which Christ laid down His life for His Church, — 
and Christ’s joy in His communion with His Father, 
—and the peace which Christ had when he had over- 
come the world, — and Christ’s long-suffering in pray- 
ing that His murderers might be forgiven, — and 


OF THE COMFORTER. 217 


Christ’s bounty in giving of all the treasures of heaven, 
—and the faithfulness of Him who is the faithful 
Witness, Himself the Truth,—and the gentleness . 
with which Christ took up little children in His arms 
and blessed them, — and Christ’s meekness in never — 
answering again, —and the temperance of Christ, who 
made it His meat and drink to do the will of is Fa- 
ther. All these graces were manifested upon earth 
in their heavenly perfection, when the fulness of the 
Godhead dwelt in the Man Christ Jesus; and all 
these graces the Spirit of God desires to give to all 
who believe in Christ Jesus. All these graces He de- 
sires to give to every one of you, so that Christ may 
be formed in you, and that your life may be swal- 
lowed up in his life. Thus shall you too. glorify 
Christ; and with Him you will glorify the Father. 
Let this be the glory which you seek, not your own 
vain, fleeting glory, but the glory wherewith you may 
glorify Christ and the Father; and this glory shall 
abide with you for ever. 

The Comforter will convince the world of sin and of 
righteousness and of judgment. This passage has 
supplied us with food for godly meditation during 
several Sundays; and how far are we from having 
exhausted it! Rather do we seem to have been merely 
skimming over the surface, diving down now and 
then a little way, while unfathomable depths were 
stretching below us. Such do we ever find to be the » 
case in studying the Scriptures. The more light and 
comfort we derive from them, the more clearly do we 
discern how far that light and comfort fall short of 
what we might derive, if we gave up our hearts and. 
minds to them with a more entire faith. O that these 

19 


218 THREEFOLD CONVICTION OF THE COMFORTER. 


same words might supply us with food for godly med- 
itation through the whole of our lives! Yea, when 
we arise from the grave, may the first thought that 
dawns on our reawakening souls, be the thought of 
Christ our Righteousness! May this thought abide 
with us through eternity, brightening evermore as we 
gain a clearer insight into the inexhaustible riches of 
that righteousness! And when the vision of our 
earthly lives flits across our spirits, when we look 
back, —if the blessed ever look back, — to this world 
and its trials, may our foremost thoughts and feelings 
be those of thankfulness to the Comforter who con- 
vinced us of sin, and to Him by whom the Prince of 
this world was judged ! 

To Him therefore, the gracious Comforter, who 
convinces us of sin and of righteousness and of judg- 
ment, and to Jesus Christ, the Lord of our faith, and 
our Righteousness, by whom the Prince of this world 
was judged, and to the blessed Father, who vouch- 
safes to send His Son and His Spirit for the redemp- 
tion and sanctification of mankind, be all praise and 
thanksgiving and glory and adoration, from angels 
and saints, world without end. 


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NOTES. 


NoruvA > pi 32: 


StncE this Sermon was preached, I have found that Bishop 
Andrewes, in his Sermon on the same text, — the fourth among 
those On the Sending of the Holy Ghost, — has tried to explain the 
expediency of our Lord’s departure by a like illustration. The 
passage powerfully confirms the argument in the text. “ Christ 
it is that telleth it us, and telleth it us for a matter of great truth, 
these were, —and whose case is better than these ? — but, if these, 
some there are, in that case, it may be said to them truly, Zi is 
expedient I be gone. And what case may that be? Even that 
case that maketh the mother many times withdraw herself from 
her young child, whom yet she loveth full tenderly, when the 
child groweth foolishly fond of her; which grew to be their case 
just: Christ’s flesh, and His fleshly presence, that, and none but 
that. So strangely fond they grew of that, as they could not en- 
dure He should go out of their sight: nothing but His carnal 
presence would quiet them. We know who said, Jf Thou hadst 
been here, Lord; as if absent He had not been as able to do it by 
His Spirit, as present by His body. And a tabernacle they would 
needs build Him, to keep Him on earth still. And ever and anon 
they were still dreaming of an earthly kingdom, and of the chief 
seats there, as if their consummation should have been in the 
flesh. These fancies, indeed errors, they fell into about the flesh: 
they had need have it taken from them. The Spirit was gone 
quite: they had more need to have Him sent. This was at no 
hand to be cherished in them. They were not to be held as 
children still, but to grow to. man’s estate, to perfect age and 

19 * 


nan “NOTE A. 


strength ; and so consequently to be weaned from the corporal 
presence of His flesh, nor to hang all by sense, to which, it is 
too true, they were too much addicted. The corporal therefore to 
be removed, that the spiritual might take place; the visible that 
the invisible; and they, not in sight or sense, as hitherto, but in 
spirit and truth henceforth to cleave to Him; to say with the 
Apostle, /f we have known Christ afier the flesh, yet now hence- 
forth we know Him so no more. This was for them: and we 
should have been no better, as now ~we are: the flesh will but hin- 
der the spirit, even the best.” 

The good Bishop indeed merely takes the instance where the 
relation between the parent and child is perverted by the “ foolishly 
fond child;” while the argument in the text draws its analogy 
from the common order of human life. And after his fashion he 
gives one of his strong glances at the illustration, and passes on ; 
whereas the congregation to whom I was preaching led me to 
dwell on the thought, and to expand it more than would have 
been warrantable in any other place. 

Augustin too makes use of a similar illustration, when com- 
menting on this passage (Jn Joannis Evang. Tract. xciv.), * As if 
He had said, It is expedient for you that this servant form be re- 
moved from you. Let the Word made flesh dwell indeed among 
you; but I do not wish you to love Me henceforth after the flesh, 
and, content with this milk, to desire ever to be babes. Jt ts ex- 
pedient for you that Igo: for if I go not away, the Paracleie will 
not come to you. If I do not remove the soft food with which I 
have nourished you, ye will not desire solid food; if ye adhere 
carnally to the flesh, ye will not be able to receive the Spirit.” 

Augustin’s illustration, like that of Andrewes, is taken from 
the earliest in the series of transitions, by which our moral life as- 
cends out of total helplessness and dependence into a more and 
more distinct consciousness of personal responsibility. In the 
Sermon I have spoken of several of those transitions, through 
which the child gradually advances into a wider and freer field of 
action, until he becomes a student at the University; and I have 
hardly alluded to the transition which still awaited my hearers, 
when they were to be emancipated from the last restraints of tu- 
telary discipline, and to go forth into the world to act under the 
sway of the principles which they had hitherto been imbibing. 
This moment, which naturaily affords the closest parallel to the 


NOTE A. 223 


condition of the disciples as described in the text, is the one which 
Schleiermacher, in his Glaubenslehre, compares with it. In ex- 
plaining the proposition, that the complete communication and re- 
ception of the Holy Spirit could not take place till after Christ’s 
departure from the earth, he says (vol. ii. pp. 288-290), “We 
must here look back to the two primary movements of our vital — 
principle, our faculty of receiving lively impressions, and that of 
free personal action, the reciprocation of which constitutes our 
life, a life the more perfect and the more fully developed, the 
wider the range of each is, and the more complete their corre- 
spondence. Now so long as the disciples abode with Christ, their 
receptive faculty was developed; and by their constant assimila- 
tion of what He gave them, the foundation was laid for their fu- 
ture labors in spreading the Kingdom of God.— On the other 
hand they were not called at that time to any positive personal 
activity. What Christ imposed on them in this way was merely 
for the sake of practice, and for this very reason was not inde- 
pendent, but needed a particular impulse for each several occa- 
sion. — The more however all depend upon one, and each receives 
his movement from that one, the more are all merely his instru- 
ments or members; and the whole is only an enlargement of his 
single personality, —rather resembling a household or a school, 
than a community. Thus the ancients regarded a state, in which 
all are unconditionally subject to the will of one, as an enlarged 
household, in which a number of living instruments move accord- 
ing to the will of a single individual: and a school is an intel- 
lectual community, which depends entirely on the mental power 
and train of thought of one man, impressed on a number collect- 
ively. Now the communion between Christ and His disciples 
was in one sense like a household, in another like a school. <A 
family however will disperse after the death of the father; and 
unless some new bond be framed for its members, they are scat- 
tered abroad. In a school, too, unless some fresh common im- 
pulse arises, beside their original desire of knowledge and their 
personal attachment, no further development will take place after 
the death of the master; but the previous union gradually wears 
away. Now it could not be otherwise during the life of Christ, 
than that every one of the disciples should cling almost entirely to 
Him, and desire to receive from Him, without feeling ripe to act 
independently for the formation of the Kingdom of God.” 


224 NOTE B. 


Note B: p. 43. 


When our Church has the courage to undertake the task of 
revising the Authorized Version of the Bible, the account of the 
work of the Comforter, given in the 13th verse of our Chapter, 
will be corrected, along with a number of other inaccuracies 
arising from inattention to the force of the Greek article. The 
neglect of this force is one among the many proofs that our Ver- 
sion of the New Testament is too dependent on a Latin transla- 
tion, probably that of Erasmus. For a competent Greek scholar, 
even in those days, would hardly have rendered cdnyijos tes 
tig nagar tHy “dySeayr, He will guide you into all truth; though 
this would be a natural rendering of ducet vos in omnem veritatem, 
as Erasmus had translated the words. Even the preposition into 
points to the Latin in, rather than the Greek ets. Wiclif, trans- 
lating from the Vulgate, docebit vos omnem veritatem, has he schal 
teche you al truthe. 

It is noticeable that Luther also renders this verse without re- 
gard to the article, who wil! guide you into all truth ; which is re- 
tained even in Meyer’s recent corrected edition. Nor is the 
objection removed by De Wette’s translation, He will guide your 
way io all truth. The meaning is happily expressed in that of 
Scholz: then will He guide you to the full truth. 

The coincidence between our Version and Luther’s might be 
urged as an argument in favor of the notion entertained by Bishop 
Marsh, that our Version bears marks of the influence of Luther’s, 
exercised in the first instance upon Tyndall. But the grounds 
brought forward in support of this notion have been much shaken 
by Mr. Walter, in his Letter On the Independence of the Author- 
ized Version of the Bible. Nor is Marsh more successful in es- 
tablishing the influence of the Vulgate on our Version. A slight 
comparison of our Version with the original Greek and with the 
Vulgate will suffice to convince us that it is totally independent of 
the latter; or at least that, if our Translators made use, as they 
doubtless did, of the Vulgate, they did so with a strong conviction of 
its defects, and a free exercise of their judgment in avoiding them. 
Yet I cannot agree with Mr. Walter in calling our Version inde- 
pendent: indeed it would have been very reprehensible to have 
made it so. The Royal Injunction rightly directed the Transla- 


NOTE B. 225 


tors to take “the Bible read in the Church, commonly called the 
Bishops Bible,’ as their basis, and to make “as few alterations as 
might be:” and this again was a mere revision of prior English 
Versions. But besides it is evident from hundreds of passages in 
the New Testament, that the Translators were continually in the 
habit of using a Latin Version, without consulting the original 
Greek. Hence a multitude of inaccurate, or at least inadequate 
renderings; which however do not arise, like those in the Rhem- 
ish Version, from a coincidence with the Vulgate, but often from 
an imperfect apprehension of some Latin substitute for the word 
in the Greek text, — from taking some special sense of the Latin 
word, different from that in which it was used to represent the 
Greek original. Among these none has been move mischievous 
than the rendering of Peynoxeco and Feyoxos by religion and re- 
ligious at the end of the first chapter of St. James. eligio and 
religiosus do answer precisely to the Greek words; but no Greek 
scholar would have thought of translating Deryoxero by religion, or 
Soiaxos by religiosus. Tyndall’s words, devotion and devout, 
which are retained by Cranmer, come much nearer to the origi- 
nals; but worship, if there were a cognate adjective, would best 
express Syyoxsve. The perversion which the meaning of the 
original sutfers from our translation is beautifully set forth by Cole- 
ridge, in the Introductory Aphorisms of his Aids to Reflection. 
Let me cite another instance, which, though of much less impor- 
tance, will serve equally to prove the fact. Among the works of 
the flesh, St. Paul, in the Epistle to the Galatians (v. 20), num- 
bers Otyootaa/at, which we render seditions. But seditions, in our 
old, as well as in our modern language, are only one form of the 
divisions implied by diyootauias, and assuredly not the form which 
would present itself foremost to the Apostle’s mind, when writing 
to the Galatians. At first too one is puzzled to understand how 
the word seditions came to suggest itself in this place, instead of 
the more general term divisions, which is the plain correspondent to? 
d:yootacius, and is so used in Rom. xvi. 17, and in 1 Cor. iii. 3. 
Here the thought occurs, that the Latin word seditio, though in 
its ordinary acceptation equivalent to its English derivative, yet 
primarily and etymologically answers very closely to d.yootacia. ; 
and one is led to conjecture that our Translators must have fol- 
lowed some Latin Version, in which the word seditiones was used, 


226 NOTE B. 


not without an affectation of archaic elegance. Now the Vulgate 
has dissensiones ; but in Erasmus, whose style was marked by that 
characteristic, we find the very word seditiones. Hence Tyndall, 
whom we know from his controversial writings to have made use 
of Erasmuses Version, took his sedition, not iminding that the sense 
an which Erasmus had used the Latin word, was alien to the Eng- 
lish ; and from Tyndall it has come down, through Cranmer’s Bible, 
with a mere change of number, into our present version; while 
Wiclif and the Rhemish render the Vulgate by dissensions. 

To return to the passage in St. John: Middleton has of course 
noticed the omission of the article in our Version. Campbell, who 
corrects his text, remarks that Wesley’s is the only English Ver- 
sion he had seen, which retains the article, yet that it ought not to 
be omitted, as “it is not omniscience that is promised, but all ne- 
cessary religious knowledge.” Scott, in his note, says, “adoay 
thy ahyFeay, all the truth, the truth as it is in J esus, the whole 
counsel of God.” 

It may be pleaded indeed that, however the verse be rendered, 
everybody will clearly understand this to be its meaning, and that 
therefore it matters not whether we correct it or no. Now this 
notion, that slight errors and defects and faults are immaterial, and 
that we need not go to the trouble of correcting them, is one main 
cause why there are so many huge errors and defects and faults in 
every region of human life, practical and speculative, moral and 
political. Nor should any error be deemed slight, which affects 
the meaning of a single word in the Bible; where so much weight 
is attached to every single word; and where so many inferences 
and conclusions are drawn from the slightest ground, not merely 
those which find utterance in books, but a far greater number 
springing up in the minds of the millions to whom our English 
Bible is the code and canon of all truth. For this reason errors, 
even the least, in a version of the Bible, are of far greater moment 
than in any other book, as well because the contents of the Bible 
are of far deeper importance, and have a far wider influence, as 
also because the readers of the Bible are not only the educated 
and learned, who can exercise some sort of judgment on what they 
read, but vast multitudes who understand whatever they read ac- 
cording to the letter. Hence it is a main duty of a Church to take 
care that the Version of the Scriptures, which it puts into the hands 
of its members, shall be as faultless as possible, and to revise it 


NOTE B. oat 


with this view from time to time, in order to attain to the utmost 
accuracy in every word.* 

It is true, though theologians may differ in their interpretation 
of this passage, as they do more or less with regard to almost every 
verse in the New Testament, their differences will not be occa- 
sionéd, except in a slight measure, by the neglect of the article in - 
the Version. Thus Luther, though he omits it, interprets the 
words very characteristically :_ “ This truth, which the Holy Ghost 
is to teach them, is not such a doctrine and knowledge as Reason 
of itself can understand and hit upon, as the perverters of this text 
prate: for the Holy Ghost and Christ’s Church do not concern 
themselves with things which are subject to man’s understanding, 
and which belong to this temporal life and to worldly rule; such 
as the enacting of laws as to what one shall eat or drink, that one 
shall be a monk or a nun, have a wife and children, or remain un- 
married, that one shall make a distinction between laity and clergy, 
shall maintain and enlarge church-lands, shall build and endow 
churches, and so forth, — but treat of far other matters, how God’s | 
children are to be begotten out of sin and death unto righteousness | 
and everlasting life, — how God’s Kingdom is to be established, and‘ 
the kingdom of hell to be destroyed, — how we are to fight against 
the devil and to overcome him,— how to cheer, strengthen, and > 
uphold faith, so that a man shall continue alive in the midst of \ 
death, and even under the consciousness of sin shall preserve a ‘ 
good conscience and the grace of God.” . 

In like manner Tauler, in his Sermon on our text, represents 
the truth which the Comforter was to teach, as coinciding with 
the essential doctrines of his Mystical Theology. “The Holy 
Ghost will not teach us all things, so that we shall know whether 
there will be a good harvest and vintage, whether bread will be 
dear or cheap, whether the present war will come to an end soon; 
but He will teach us all things which we can need for a perfect 
life, and for a knowledge of the hidden truth of God, of the bond- 
age of Nature, of the deceitfulness of the world, and of the cunning 
of evil spirits—Thus, when the Holy Ghost comes to us, He’ 
teaches us all truth; that is, He shorvs us a true picture of our 
failings, and confounds us in ourselves, and teaches us how we are 
to live singly and purely for the truth, and teaches us to sink 


* See Preface to American Edition. 


228 NOTE B. 


humbly into a deep humility, and to cast ourselves utterly down 
beneath God, and beneath every creature. ‘This is a true art, in 
which all art and wisdom are concluded, and which we need in- 
dispensably for our true perfection and felicity. This is a true, 
hearty humility ; and this must be truly in us, wrought into our 
souls. Man can do nothing whatever as before the Lord, unless 
he has this humility really at all times within him.” | 
It is well remarked by Ackermann, in an Essay on the meaning 
of the words, mvetwo, vous, and spirit, in the Theologische Studien 
und Kritiken (xii. 889), “ One cannot too often urge, that it is ne- 
cessary to lay aside the common meaning which we attach to the 
word truth, if we would form a right conception of St. John’s 
olnSea. By this word he denotes, not an object of theoretical 
knowledge, but a relation to God and the things of God. The re- 
ligions of the Heathens are represented in the Old Testament as 
mere lies and nonentities; and agreeably thereto a right concep- 
tion of the things of God, in accordance with the will of God, on 
the part of man, is termed ody Seco.” - 
On the other hand Hammond, in his Paraphrase, also according 
to his wont, cuts down this whole truth, which the Holy Ghost is 
to teach the Apostles, to something merely temporary, transient, 
and external: “ He shall instruet you what is to be done, teach 
you the full of my Father’s will for the laying aside of the ceremo- 
nial external law of the Jews, freeing all Christians from that yoke, 
etc.” These narrow, historical expositions of Scripture are among 
the evils which our Theology has derived from an exaggerated 
reverence for the Fathers. With them indeed such applications 
have a living force: for the reception of the Gentiles into the 
Church was still an event of deep personal interest, which, while 
living in conflict with Heathenism, all could feel, and in some 
measure appreciate. But in later ages such interpretations, when 
they are given as the whole or main sense, deaden the words of 
Scripture ; and whereas Scripture, in speaking of temporary things, 
always sets out the permanent idea, they invert this process, and 
subordinate the ideal truth to that which was merely its occasional 
type and exemplification. In this respect also do we owe an in- 
calculable debt to the great Reformers, to Calvin, Beza, Melanch- 
thon, and above all to Luther, who, as they and their compeers set 
free the words of Scripture from their prison of a dead language, 
in like manner set free its spirit from the load of mere historical 


ae be 


NOTE B. 229 


expositions and fantastical allegories, wherewith it had been over- 
laid, and who brought out the fulness of the truth, that the Bible 
“is not of an age, but of all time.” If we find them, Luther espe- 
cially, applying the words of Scripture with endless iteration to the 
controversies and struggles of their own days, this only shows the 
strength of their conviction that the Bible was no less a living book 
in their age, than in those when it was first written: and the way 
in which we are to imitate them is, not by clinging to their appli- 
cation as the chief or only true one, but by applying the principles 
and promises of Scripture in like manner to the great warfare 
waging between the Powers of Good and Evil, in our days, by dis- 
cerning and showing how the Bible is equally a living book in the 
nineteenth century as in the sixteenth, and as in the first, how it 
contains a key to all the mysteries of our age, a clue through all 
its perplexities, and a staff of comfort to bear us up under the de- 
spondency which might otherwise crush us. This is its office now, 
as then; and this office it will discharge. The spirit which the 
Reformers set free, will continue free, in spite of all that Arminian 
and Socinian and Romanist and Rationalist commentators can do 
to cage it again. 

By Curcellzus this declaration of our Lord’s is cited to prove 
the sufliciency of Scripture. “These words, all truth, show that 
Christ and His vicarious Spirit omitted nothing which the Apostles 
were to teach in order to-discharge aright the office intrusted to 
them:” Religionis Christiane Institutio, 1. XI. 4. In his Tracta- 
tus de Leclesia VIII. 5, he interprets all truth by, a“ perfect knowl- 
edge of all things pertaining to religion and the worship of God.” 
At the same time he observes, “ Yea even after the Holy Spirit 
was received, they (the Apostles) were ignorant that the Gentiles 
were to be called to participate in the Gospel without observing 
the rites of the Mosaic law. For the promise of Christ, that the 
Holy Spirit should lead them into all truth, was not so to be taken, 
as if He would at once reveal to them all truth, but that gradually, 
and as occasion offered, He would admonish them of their official 
work, and reveal those things which must be known for the per- 
formance of it. Yet with the exception of that one case, the call- 
ing of the Gentiles, we see nothing new revealed to them in respect 
to doctrine. Thus we are to believe, that from the time when Pe- 
ter went to Cornelius and instructed him in the Christian faith, 


(which took place in the second or third year after Christ’s 
20 


230 NOTE B. 


passion), the apostles knew perfectly all things pertaining to their 
office.” 

Still, though the want of the article will not occasion the learned 
to misapply our Lord’s declaration concerning the truth to which 
the Comforter is to lead us, the preceding extract from - Luther 
shows that this declaration was grossly misapplied in his days: and 
assuredly the misprision of this passage has aided in fostering the 
delusive notion that the Bible is a kind of encyclopedia of univer- 
sal knowledge, and that every expression in it bearing, however 
allusively, upon astronomy, or geology, or history, has the same 
divine attestation of its infallibility, as what it reveals concerning 
God, and concerning man in his relation to God. This notion in 
fact is one of the idolatries, by means of which man would save 
himself.from the labor of patient and continuous thought, an idola- 
try akin to that of the Caliph Omar for the Koran, and of many 
among the Greeks for the Homeric poems, as containing all that 
is worth knowing about all things. Man would fain believe him- 
self to be omniscient, without taking pains to become so. This 
notion has ever been still more injurious to Religion than to Sci- 
ence: for Science soon overleaps and treads down the fences which 
are thus erected to check it; but, as Religion cannot possibly main- 
tain the positions, which she is thus engaged to defend, her failure 
in this field shakes the confidence in her power, even within her 
own province. 

At the same time there is a sense in which, it is quite certain, 
the Spirit of God alone will lead us to all Truth, even with regard 
to temporal and human and earthly things. Two opposite classes 
of phenomena might indeed dispose us to question this,—on the 
one hand the sceptical, unbelieving spirit, which has so often been 
found united with high attaimments in knowledge,—and on the 
other hand the narrowmindedness with which self-sufficient bigotry 
has perpetually set itself in opposition to all manner of knowledge 
beyond the range of its own short-sighted vision, as though the 
God of truth could only dwell in darkness. So imperfectly do we 
yet understand the redemption wrought for us by Christ; and so 
obstinate are we in separating what God has united, as though it 
were impossible for the Tree of Knowledge to stand beside the 
Tree of Lite. Yet in the redeemed world they do stand side by 
side, and their arms intermingle and intertwine, so that no one 
can walk under the shade of the one, but he will also be under 


NOTE C. 231 


the shade of the other. On this point I have already had occa- 
sion to speak more than once, for instance in the Sermon on the 
Church the Light of the World, in those on the Victory of Faith 
(pp. 181, foll.) and in that on the Law of Self-sacrifice. 'There- 
fore I will not renew the argument here; although it is most im- 
portant in these days that all should be convinced that the pure 
love of Truth cannot be severed from the love of God, nor the 
perfect knowledge of Truth from the knowledge of God; and that 
the Spirit of God alone can purge our intellectual eye from the 
manifold films which disguise and distort all objects, and prevent 
its seeing them; even as He alone can enable us to discern the 
true essence and relations of all things, the idea in which they 
were made, and the relation in which they stand to their Maker, 


Note C: p. 45. 


This is the ground taken by Augustin in his Sermon on this 
passage (Serm. exlii). “The Holy Spirit has brought this great 
gift for those who shall believe, namely, that they, with mind free 
from fleshly lusts and filled with spiritual desires, shall long for 
Him whom they could not see with their bodily eyes. Hence also 
when that disciple, who had refused to believe except he might 
have touched the scars of his Lord, awaking as it were, had ex- 
claimed upon touching His body: J/y Lord and my God! the 
Lord saith to him: Because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed ; 
blessed are they who have not seen and have believed. 'This bless- 
ing the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, brought, when the form of a 
servant, which He had received from the womb of the virgin, was 
removed from the eye of flesh, and the purged mental vision was 
directed toward the very form of God, in which He continued 
equal with the Father even when pleased to appear incarnate; so 
that the Apostle filled with the same Spirit could saye And if we 
have known Christ after the flesh, yet now know we Him no more. 
For he indeed, has known the flesh of Christ, not after the flesh, 
but after the spirit, who knows the power of His resurrection, not 
by the inquisitive touch, but by the assurance of faith; not say- 
ing in his heart: Who shall ascend into heaven? that is, to lead 
Christ from thence ; or who shall descend into the deep? that is, to 
lead Christ back from the dead: but, he says, the Word is near, in 


232 NOTE C. 


thy mouth, that Jesus is Lord; and if thou wilt believe in thine 
heart, that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 
For with the heart man believes unto righteousness, but with the 
mouth confession is made unto salvation. While therefore we 
could in no way possess this blessing, by which we see not yet 
believe, except we received it from the Holy Spirit, it is well said : 
It is expedient for you that I go away. He is ever with us indeed 
by His Divinity ; but unless He were corporeally absent from us, 
we should always see His body after the flesh and never spiritu- 
ally believe; by which faith justified and blessed we may be 
worthy to contemplate with purified heart the very Word, God 
with God, by whom all things were made, and who was made 
flesh that He might dwell among us.” 

To the same purport, in Serm. cclxx. he says, calling on us to 
consider the meaning of the words, He cannot come, unless I go 
away, “as if, to speak after a carnal sense, the Lord Christ were 
preserving somewhat in heaven, and descending from thence had 
committed it to the Holy Spirit, and therefore the latter could not 
come to us unless the former should return to resume the deposit ; 
or as if we were not able to bear the presence of both. As if, 
indeed, one might be separated from the other; or when they 
come to us, they might suffer from the straitness of the abode, 
and not rather we be enlarged. It seems to me that the disciples 
had been occupied with the human form of our Lord Christ, and 
being men were controlled, as it were, by human affection to man. 
But he desired them rather to have a divine affection, and to be 
made spiritual instead of carnal: which a man does not become 
except by gift of the Holy Spirit. This therefore He says: I 
send to you a gift by which you may be made spiritual; namely, 
the gift of the Holy Spirit. You cannot become spiritual unless 
you cease to be carnal. Now you will cease to be carnal, if the 
bodily form is withdrawn from your eyes, that the image of God 
may be plaeed in your hearts. For by this human form, the 
heart even of Peter was detained, when he feared that He whom 
he loved much would die. For he loved the Lord Jesus Christ as 
a man loves man, as the carnal loves the carnal, not as the spiritual 
loves true Majesty. How do we prove this? Because when the 
Lord himself had asked His disciples, whom He was called by 
men, — He saith to them: But whom say ye that I am? And 
Peter, speaking for the others, for all, said: Thou art the Christ, 


NOTE Cc. DO 


the Son of the living God. A most fit and. truthful answer: and 
he deserved well the response : Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona, 
Sor flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but my Father who 
is in heaven. And I say unto thee,—thou art Petrus: because I 
am petra, thou art Petrus; for petra is not from Petro, but Petrus 
is from petra, Christ is not from the Christian but the Christian 
from Christ. And upon this rock will I build my church: not upon 
Petrum which thou art, but upon the petram which thou hast con- 
fessed. But J will build my church ; I will build thee, who in this 
reply dost represent the church. Then began the Lord to predict 
His passion. Here Peter was filled with terror, lest Christ, the 
Son of the Living God, should perish by death. Indeed Christ, 
the Son of the Living God, Goodness from Goodness, God from 
God, Life from Life, the Fount of life, and the true Life had 
come to destroy death, and not to perish by death. Yet Peter’s 
terror sprang from his human affection to the body of Christ. 
Should we then regret that it was said to such : Jt is expedient that 
Igo? Unless I go away, the Paraclete will not come unto you, un- 
less the human form is withdrawn from your carnal vision, ye will 
be little able to receive, discern, and consider any thing divine.” 
I have made these long extracts, not only on account of their 
intrinsic value, and for the light they throw on the text, and on 
the other passages which they bring into juxtaposition with it, 
but also because the latter extract is an interesting proof, among 
a multitude of others, that the common Romish interpretation of 
our Lord’s speech to Peter is very different from that adopted by 
the early Church. Augustin indeed speaks, in his Retractations 
(1. 21), of having interpreted the declaration as applying to Peter 
himself, in an earlier work against Donatus; but it is plain that 
this must have been done without any reference to Rome. The 
chief part of the Fathers on the other hand understood Peter’s 
recognition of the Divine Nature and Office of his Lord to be the 
Rock, on which Christ purposed to build His Church. Yet of 
course this confession is not to be taken apart from him who makes 
it. The Rock is Peter’s faith, confessing the divinity of Christ, 
and standing as the representative of all in all ages who were to 
hold the same faith in Christ the Son of the living God; as this 
is nobly expressed by Origen (in Evang. Matth. xii. 10): “ And 
if we also have said like Peter: Thou art the Christ, the Son of 
the Living God, not because flesh and blood have revealed it to 
20 * 


234 NOTE C. 


us, but because a light from the Father in heaven has shone into 
our heart, then we become Peter, and to us may be said by the 
Word: Thou art Peter, etc. For every disciple of Christ, from 
whom those drank who drank of the spiritual rock that followed, 
is a rock, and upon every such rock is built every doctrine of the 
church, and the corresponding polity: for in each of the perfect, 
who possess the sum of those words and works and thoughts which 
make blessedness complete, is the church built by God.” 

It is curious to see the shifts by which the Romish commenta- 
tors, at least that portion of them who are zealous in asserting the 
primacy of the Bishop of Rome, such as Maldonatus, try to make 
out that the view of this passage taken by the Fathers agrees with 
their own: and the contemplation will be profitable to us, if it 
leads us to reflect how apt we ourselves are to twist and warp and 
clip the most reluctant evidence, in order to fit it into our scheme 
of thought, and thus renders us more self-distrustful and more 
watchful. Yet after all, St. Peter, as Schelling has remarked, is 
in divers respects, a type of the Romish Church. In the recent 
piratical publication of Schelling’s Lectures, by which one of the 
shallowest and noisiest babblers in German theology has been dis- 
gracing the decline of his life, an ingenious comparison is traced 
between the character of the Church of Rome and that of St. 
Peter; and among other things the two sides of Peter’s conduct 
on the occasion referred to are said to typify “ the combination of 
stedfast faith with the meanest worldliness in the Romish 
Church.” Of course such publications, taken from reports of 
lectures unrevised by the author, will very often fail of doing jus- 
tice to his expressions. But true it is that, while it is the glory of 
the Church of Rome to have preserved the confession of Christ, 
the Son of the living God, through so many ages, notwithstanding 
the open assaults and insidious snares of numberless forms of 
heresy, that Church has ever been especially apt to lose sight of 
the spiritual and divine truth in the outward human form. She 
has been unable to recognize how it was indeed expedient for 
Christ to go away. She has never been content, unless she could 
get something present, a vicar, images, outward works, actual sac- 
rifices, with priests to offer them up, real flesh and real blood. 
She chose rather to defy the evidence of the senses, than not to 
have an object of sense. Yes, assuredly it is the great sin of the 
Church of Rome, that, in the words just cited from Augustin, 


ROWE De 230 


she “loved the Lord Jesus Christ, as a man loves man, as the 
carnal loves the carnal, not as the spiritual loves true Majesty.” 
This however has been the great difficulty in all ages and under 
all forms of the Church. Some cling to persons, some to institu- 
tions, some to ordinances, another class to visions, dreams, im- 
mediate supernatural experiences. In one way or other we all 
want to touch the hem of Christ’s earthly garment. If we can do 
this, we think ourselves safe; but we cannot conceive how it is 
possible that a man should believe and be saved. “ Because we 
are carnal,” says Calvin in his Commentary on our text, “ nothing 
is more difficult than to tear from our minds this preposterous af- 
fection, by which we draw Christ to us from heaven.” 


Note D: p. 46. 


Luther, in his Exposition of the Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and 
Sixteenth Chapters of St. John, — one of the most precious of his 
works, and which he himself called the best book he had ever 
written, — sets forth this argument with his usual simple power. 
“Tf [remain with you, (our Lord says), you will have nothing in 
Me but a bodily, natural comfort, and will be unable to attain to 
the high spiritual authority and everlasting life ordained for you. 
Therefore My departure, which troubles you now so greatly, 
should be your chief joy. Let Me go away, and be afflicted to 
the utmost, and put to a shameful death; and be ye without anxi- 
ety ; for know that all this is for your good. — It is declared in the 
Scriptures, and foretold by all the Prophets, that Christ shall suf- 
fer, and die, and be buried, and rise again, and shall thus begin a 
new everlasting Kingdom, in which. men shall have eternal life, 
being redeemed from sin and death and hell. This must be ful- 
filled; and the hour is at hand when it shall come to pass. — 
Therefore your joy and salvation are now beginning; only you 
must learn a little to forget My bodily presence, and to wait 
for the Comforter. For My Kingdom cannot begin, nor the Holy 
Ghost be given, until I have died and left this life. My death and 
rising again will make every thing new in heaven and on earth, 
and establish a state of things in which the Holy Ghost shall reign 
everywhere through the Gospel and through your office, so that 
ye shall sit, as I have before told you, and judge the twelve tribes 


236 NOTE D. 


of Israel, and have rule and power over sin and death, unto 
righteousness and eternal life, and that all who wish to be saved 
must hear and follow you. This is the treasure and the glory 
which I shall obtain for you: but it cannot be yours, until I have 
done that which is to gain it for you, and purchased and won it 
by My death. 

“ This is the meaning of these words. Unless I go away, that 
is, unless I die, nothing will be done; you will continue as you 
are; and every thing will continue in its old state, as it was be- 
fore, and is now, —the Jews under the law of Moses, the Heath- 
ens in their blindness, all under sin and death; and no man can 
be redeemed from them or saved. No scripture would then be 
fulfilled; and I should have come in vain; and all would be vain 
that the holy Fathers before you, and you have believed and 
hoped. But if I go and die, and do that which God in His coun- 
sels has decreed to accomplish by Me, the Holy Ghost will come 
to you, and work in you,and give you such courage, that you 
shall be My ambassadors, and shall sit with Me on My throne, 
shall convert the whole world, shall set aside the Law of the Jews, 
and destroy the idolatry of the Heathens, and shall reprove and 
change the whole world; and your doctrine shall stand fast for 
ever, and shall spread on every side, although the devil and the 
world shall be offended thereby. This is the blessing and the 
glory which My departure brings you. Therefore you must not 
trouble yourselves about My going away from you, but should 
think whither I go, and what I am to accomplish. Think not 
about My going away, but about this, that I am going to the 
Father. Thus, instead of the pain and grief which you now feel 
at My going away, you will find pure comfort, joy, and life; be- 
cause I am going where I shall receive power from the Father, 
and be Lord over all things,.and shall send you the Holy Ghost, 
who will glorify Me in the world; and thus through you I shall 
establish and spread My Kingdom, which shall never come to an 
end, and shall work such miracles that the devil and the world 
shall be confounded, and be subject to you; and you shall help 
many, and make many blessed. All which ‘would remain un- 
done, if I did not go away and die.” 

Luecke, in the first edition of his Commentary, which has lost 
something, as well as gained much in the subsequent ones, says on 
the text: “ The history of the disciples, of the light they received, 


NOTE E. 237 


and of what they did, after the Ascension and the outpouring of 
the Holy Ghost, explains and confirms our Lord’s words. None 
but He who had been crucified, had risen, and been glorified, the 
Son of God, who sat at the right hand of the Father, could be 
preached by the Apostles as the Saviour of the whole world, and 
as the Lord of a new, eternal, and spiritual Kingdom of Heaven. 
None but the Son of God, who had overcome death, and returned 
in triumph to the Father, could the Paraclete proclaim to the 
world as the Fulfiller of all righteousness, as the Conqueror of the 
Prince of this world, and as Him unbelief in whom was sin.” 


Nore E: p. 46. 


This argument also has been urged by Bishop Andrewes, who 
seldom lets any rational view of a subject escape him, and does 
not always confine himself to such; as indeed it is difficult for a 
man to do, who is at all spellbound by a reverence for the exe- 
getical fancies of the Fathers. As the disciples, he says, in the 
Sermon already quoted, “were to be sent abroad into all coasts, 
to be scattered all over the earth to preach the Gospel, and not to 
stay together still, in one place, Christ’s corporal presence would 
have stood them in small stead. He could have been resident but 
in one place, to have comforted some one of them, St. James at 
Jerusalem: as for John at Ephesus, or Thomas in India, or Peter 
at Babylon, as good for them in heaven as in earth; all one. 
The Spirit, that was to succeed, was much more fit for men dis- 
persed. He could be, and was present with them all, and with 
every one by himself, as filling the compass of the whole world.” 
In the edition of 1641, and in the new Oxford reprint, the last 
sentence stands thus: “ He could be, and was present with them 
all, and with every one by Himself, as filling the compass of the 
whole world ;” where Himself is marked by the capital as refer- 
ring to the Spirit. To me it seems that Andrewes meant to ex- 
press an antithesis: the Spirit could be and was present with them 
all, collectively, when they were gathered together, and with every 
one by himself, severally, when they were scattered over the earth. 
As his Sermons were published after his death from his manu- 
scripts by Bishops Laud and Buckeridge, although the old edition 
is remarkably accurate, a slight emendation from conjecture is 


238 NOTE F. 


more warrantable than in a book revised by the author himself: 
more especially is it so in a writer of such a singular, abrupt, 
jagged, tangled style, in reading whom one seems to be walking 
through a thicket, crammed with thoughts and thoughtlets, and is 
caught at every tenth step by some outjutting briar. 


Note F:p."47, 


The argument on this point comes forward again at the end of 
the third Sermon, in the observations on the words, And ye see 
Meno more. Itis urged by Augustin, De Peccatorum Meritis et 
Remissione, 1. 52. “ Although the Lord wrought many visible 
miracles, from which, as from milk-affording elements, faith itself 
might germinate and grow from softness to its own proper strength, 
(for the stronger it is, the less does it seek those miracles); yet 
that which we hope for on the ground of a promise, He wished to 
have expected without the aid of sight, that the just might live by 
faith ; and to sucha degree did He wish this, that although He rose 
on the third day He was unwilling to be among men, but after an 
example of the resurrection had, in His own flesh, been shown to 
these whom He had chosen to be witnesses of this fact, He ascended 
into heaven, removing Himself from their eyes also, — that they 
too might live by faith, and now for the interim expect without 
sight the reward of His righteousness, in which we live by faith, 
a reward hereafter to be made visible. To this idea I believe 
that is also to be referred, which He says respecting the Holy 
Spirit: He cannot come unless I go away. For this was equiva- 
lent to saying, ye will not be able rightly to live by faith, a life 
which ye are to live through My gift, that is, the Holy Spirit, un- 
less I withdraw from your eyes this which ye see, in order that 
your heart may spiritually profit by believing things invisible. 
Speaking of the Holy Spirit He thus commends this same right- 
eousness by faith: He shall convince the world of sin, of righteous 
ness and of judgment ; of sin, because they believe not on Me; of 
righteousness, because I go to the Father, and ye shall see Me no 
more.’ What is this righteousness, by which they might not see 
Him, unless that the just should live by faith, and that we, not re- 
garding those things which are seen, but those which are not seen, 
expect by the Spirit through faith the hope of righteousness.” 


NOTE F., 239 


So again in his Treatise on the Trinity (1. 18), speaking of this 
passage: “It was necessary that the servant-form should be re- 
moved from their eyes, because they thought this alone, which 
they saw, to be Christ. Hence His word: If ye loved Me ye 
would rejoice, because I go to the Father; for the Father is greater 
than I: that is, it is necessary for me to go to the Father, because 
while ye thus behold Me, ye judge from what ye see, that I am less 
than the Father, and, occupied with My created and assumed na- 
ture, ye do not perceive the equality which I have with the Father. 
Hence also the language: Touch Me not; for I have not yet as- 
cended to the Father. For touch makes an end, as it were, to concep- 
tion. And He was unwilling that what was seen should be thought 
the whole, that the heart directed to Him should pause with the 
visible. By ascending to the Father He was to appear as equal 
to the Father.” . 

Bengel in one of the pregnant notes in his invaluable Gnomon, 
—a work which manifests the most intimate and profoundest 
knowledge of Scripture, and which, if we examine it with care, 
will often be found to condense more matter into a line, than can 
be extracted from many pages of other writers,— says, on the 
word cuuéges in the text, “It is expedient for you, with reference 
to the Paraclete, v. 7. s. and to Me, v. 16. s. and to the Father, v. 
23.8.” Thus he draws our attention to the manner in which our 
Lord Himself, in the subsequent part of the chapter, explains the 
advantages to accrue from His departure; telling the disciples 
first, how the Comforter would come to them, and arm them with 
power to convince the world, and would guide them to the Truth, 
— secondly, how after a little while He would return to them, and 
they would see Him again, when He was ascending to the Father, 
and their sorrow would be turned into joy, like that of a woman 
in travail when she is delivered of her child, a joy which no man 
should take from them,—and thirdly, how the prayers, which 
they would then offer up in His name, would find acceptance with 
the Father, who would give them whatsoever they asked, and how 
He would show them plainly of the Father, and how the Father 
would love them, because they had loved and believed in His Son. 

In the next note, on the word, yag —“ The office of the Paraclete 
is twofold, towards the world, as here, and towards believers, v. 
12. s.’ — we are led to observe, how the twofold office of the Com- 
forter is set forth, — that of convincing the world of sin and right- 


240 NOTE @. 


eousness and judgment, —and that of guiding the disciples to the 
whole Truth. 

Bengel’s next note is also important, on the verbs amé10w and 
mogevda : “abiero, profectus ero: (inadequately rendered in our 
version, ‘go away,’ ‘depart, ) the verbs differ: the former looks 
more to the terminus a quo, the latter to the terminus ad quem:” 
indicating that the grand advantage to the disciples would not re- 
sult from His going away from them, but from His going to the 
Father. ‘This distinction is lost in the Vulgate, where both are 
rendered abiero ; as itis in our Version, where the second verb, 
depart, “regards the terminus a quo.” Erasmus follows the Vul- 
gate; but Beza, both here and in xiv. 3, where the Vulgate again 
gives abiero for mogevd-a substitutes profectus fuero. The simplest 
way of preserving the distinction in our language would be to ren- 
der the latter part of the verse thus: Lor if I go not away, the 
Comforter will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. 

In this microscopic nicety of observation, which, as we have 
seen, will often detect important fibres of thought, no commentator 
that I know comes near Bengel. Luther, rendering the two verbs 
by hingehen, misses the “terminus a quo:” in the former: nor is 
this corrected by Meyer or Scholz; but itis by De Wette. “It 
is well for you that I go away (weggehe) ; for if I go not away the 
Helper will not come to you; but if I go (hingehe), I will send 
Him to you.” 


NOTH  S'p. 49. 


By the Greek Fathers this verse, and the other similar ones on 
the Paraclete, are chiefly quoted in the course of their arguments 
on the Personality, and on the Procession of the Holy Ghost. 
Thus Athanasius, in his first Discourse against the Arians (§ 47), 
after speaking of the descent of the Holy Ghost on our Lord at 
His Baptism, and saying that He received this sanctification, not 
by reason of any imperfection in Himself, as the Word, but in His 
human capacity, as the representative of mankind, adds, “ And in 
deed the Lord Himself says: the Spirit shall take of Mine; and: 
L will send Him; also, to his disciples: Receive ye the Holy Ghost: 
and yet He who presented Himself to others as the Word and 
Glory of the Father, is said now to be sanctified, since He has 


NOTE G. 241 


again become man and that which is sanctified is His body.” The 
last words are rendered in the recent Oxford Translation, “ And 
the Body that is sanctified is His.” They should rather be ren- 
dered, “ And that which is sanctified is His Body ;” as Athanasius 
had said just before, “the descent of the Spirit upon Him in the 
Jordan took place for our sake, because He possessed a human 
body.” The same argument recurs in the first Epistle to Serapion, 
§ 20. “ For as the Son is only-begotten, so also is the Spirit, which 
is given and sent by the Son, One and the Same, not many, nor 
one of many, but the sole and self-same Spirit. For the Son, the 
Living Word, being One, His perfect, holy, luminous, vital energy 
and sift must be one; and this is said to proceed from the Father, 
because it shines forth and is sent and given by the Word, Who is 
acknowledged to be from the Father. For the Son surely is from 
the Father; since He thus speaks: God so loved the world, that 
He sent His only-begotten Son. But the Son sends the Spirit: for 
if, He says, I depart I will send the Comforter. Moreover the Son 
came in the Father’s name; but the Holy Spirit, saith the Son, 
which the Father shall send in My name.” 

Chrysostom, in his 78th Homily on St. John, urges the argu- 
ment contained in our text for the exceeding dignity of the 
Comforter. “What do such as pay not suitable honor to the 
Spirit here say? It is expedient for the Master to go away, and 
the servant to come? You see how high is the Spirit’s rank.” 

To the same effect writes Theodoret in the fifth Book of his 
Heretical Fables, in a passage where he asserts his peculiar doc- 
trine concerning the procession of the Spirit from the Father alone. 
“We have, therefore, learned that the Holy Spirit has its being 
from God the Father: but the mode of its existence does not 
resemble that of the creature; for the Most Holy Spirit is un- 
created,—nor that of the only-begotten Son, for no inspired 
writer calls the existence of the Divine Spirit a birth. Yet the 
Sacred Scriptures assert, that the Spirit is from God and is Divine. 
For Christ, the Master, says concerning Him: Jt is expedient for 
you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will 
not come unto you. And again : when the Comforter has come, 
the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall guide 
you to the whole truth. By saying, which proceedeth from the 
Father, He exhibited the Father as being the fountain of the 
Spirit; and by saying, not, which shall proceed, but, which proceed- 

21 


242 NOTE @. 


eth, he exhibited also, their sameness of nature, the community 
and inseparableness of their being, and the unity of their persons ; 
for that which proceedeth is not parted from that out of which it 
proceeds.” 

In like manner Augustin, in a fine passage of the first Book of 
his Treatise on the Trinity (§ 18), argues from this and other 
texts to prove the equality and unity of the Three Persons. 
“Hence, the Spirit of the Father and the Son is not separated 
from either. For the fulness of our joy, beyond which an ampler 
does not exist, is this, to enjoy God the Trinity, to whose image 
we have been formed.* Hence, we sometimes speak of the Holy 
Spirit as if He alone might suffice to make us blessed; and He 
alone is sufficient, because He cannot be separated from the Father 
and the Son: as also the Father alone suffices, because He cannot 
be separated from the Son and the Holy Spirit; and the Son 
alone, because He cannot be separated from the Father and the 
Spirit. What then is meant by these words: If ye love Me, keep 
My commandments ; and Iwill pray the Father, and He shall give 
you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever, the 
Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive? that is, the lovers 
of the world; for the natural man receiveth not the things of the 
Spirit of God. But it might seem from the expression: And I 
will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, as 
if the Son were not sufficient. While on the other hand the lan- 
guage: when the Spirit of truth shall come, He shall teach you all 
truth, appears to assert that the Spirit alone would be sufficient. 
Why then is the Son separated, as if He could not teach all truth, 
or as if the Holy Spirit would complete what the Son was less 
able to teach? Let them therefore, if they please, who are accus- 
tomed to say the Holy Spirit is inferior to the Son, say that He ig 
greater. Or do they think the Son may be supposed to teach 
with Him, because it does not read He alone, or no one but He, 
wil teach you all truth? Was then the apostle separated the Son 
from knowing the things which are of God, when he says: So also 
the things which are of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God 2 
for those errorists might say from this language, that no one except 
the Holy Spirit teaches the Son what are the things of God, as a 
greater teaches an inferior: to which Holy Spirit, He Himself, 
ascribes so much as to say: Jt is expedient for you that I go; for 
if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you. But this 


NOTE G. 243 


He said not because of any inequality between the Word of God 
and the Holy Spirit, but as if the presence of the Son of Man 
with them might be an obstacle in the way of His coming, who 
was not inferior to the Son; since He had not emptied Himself of 
His glory, assuming the form of a servant, as had the Son.” 

Similar arguments are urged by Anselm with his wonted sub- 
tilty in his Treatise De Processione Spiritus Sancti, ss. ix. xix. 
Comparing our Lord’s declaration in the foregoing chapter of St. 
John, that He will send the Comforter,—a declaration which 
recurs in our text, — with that in the fourteenth chapter, that tHe 
Father will send the Comforter in His name, Anselm argues the 
identity of the act, and the unity of the Agent. A number of 
passages, in which the same line of argument is taken by Basil, 
Cyril, Gregory Nazianzen, Hilary, Gregory the Great, and others, 
are quoted by Petavius in his great work on the Trinity vii. 4. 5. 
9. vill. 4. 5. Thomas Aquinas (Summa iii. Quaest. lvii. Art. vi,) 
where he is speaking of the effect of our Lord’s Ascension, in 
arguing “ Whether the Ascension of Christ is the cause of our 
Salvation,” after he has stated that our Lord’s Passion is the one 
meritorious cause of our salvation, quotes our text to prove that 
His Ascension was also the cause of great benefits to us, “that 
established on His throne in heaven as God and Lord, He might 
send from thence divine gifts to men.” 

Hence this verse became one of the standard texts in all argu- 
ments about the Procession of the Holy Ghost. Thus for instance 
Bossuet says, in his Elévations sur les Mysttres de la Religion 
Chrétienne (v): “What then may this be, this last exhibition of 
God? It is a procession, without particular name. The Holy 
Spirit proceedeth from the Father (John 15: 26); the Holy Spirit 
is the common Spirit of the Father and of the Son: the Holy 
Spirit taketh of the Son, (John 16: 14) ; and the Son sendeth Him 
(16: 7,) as well as the Father.” 

In Lampe’s learned and elaborate Commentary the interpreta- 
tions of this verse by the Fathers are spoken of contemptuously, 
as examples, “ How ignorant were the Fathers of the difference 
between the Old Testament and the New, whose foundation was 
the actual shedding of the blood of Testament.” Hence, he says, 
this passage, “ which, this difference being supposed, is very easily 
understood, has given rise to many foolish comments. Thus Au- 
gustine, inquiring why the Spirit was not to be sent unless Christ 


244 NOTE @. 


departed, supposes the carnal affection of his disciples to have 
been the reason; J?upertus, that there was no oceasion for conso- 
lation while He was yet living; Cyril, that so long as Jesus was 
with His disciples, the presence of the Spirit was less necessary, 
since He Himself gave them all blessings. The explanation of 
Euthemius is nearer the truth; namely, that it seemed best to the 
Most Holy Trinity for the Father to draw them to the Son, the 
Son to teach them, and the Holy Spirit to make them perfect; 
and as two parts were now performed, the third, —that is the 
eonsummating work of the Spirit, ought to be accomplished. But 
this view, which T’heophylact adopts, is too general, and expresses 
merely the universal economy of salvation common to all times.” 

The censure here bestowed on the Fathers is grounded on a 
very common misconception, which sadly perverts our views of 
the history of the Church, and mars the good we might otherwise 
derive from the divines of former ages. It is seldom duly borne 
in mind, — indeed till of late years it was never distinctly recog- 
nized, — that in theology, as in every other department of human 
knowledge, there is a law of progress, according to which divers 
portions of Christian truth were not to attain to their rightful 
prominence in the systematic exposition of doctrines, till after the 
lapse of several generations. If we cast our eyes back over the 
history of literature, of philosophy, of science, we can hardly help 
perceiving, provided we know what to look for, that every age has 
received a certain number of talents, which it was to occupy until 
it was called to render in its reckoning; that every age has had 
a certain portion of truth, a certain quantity of knowledge, assigned 
to it, which it was to increase, but which it could only increase 
step by step, and from which it could not bound forward at once 
into the portion designed for its remote posterity. Hence it is 
injustice and foolishness to blame the writers of former times, 
because their fashion of speech, of thought, of feeling, is in many 
respects unlike our own, or because they have not the same clear 
insight into truths, which we may count among the most precious 
parts of our possessions, yet for which we may perhaps be in no 
slight measure indebted to their patient and persevering cultiva- 
tion of the inheritance they had received. Everybody would 
allow that it were absurd to find fault with Homer, because he 
did not write in rhyme, or with Archimedes, because he did not 
make use of the fluxionary calculus. Into this absurdity. we do 


o 


NOTE @. 245 


not fall; because here the difference is so definite and palpable. 
In most cases, however, when we are criticizing the writers of 
former times, we are apt to take our own point of view, and to 
quarrel with them for not seeing things exactly as we see, or not 
seldom as we fancy that we see them. Whereas it is plain that 
we cannot understand any writer duly, unless we try to place 
ourselves in his point of view, and to look at things as he, from > 
his position in the world, was compelled to look at them. If we 
know not the work he was set to do, how can we judge whether 
he did his work well or ill? It is true, this is difficult, because we 
are so penned in by our circumstances, and hidebound by our 
habitual thoughts and feelings. It is true too, that, in order to 
exercise judgment, we need a positive, as well as a comparative 
standard, and that each age, as well as the individuals belonging 
to it, is to be judged, not merely according to its ability and dili- 
gence in accomplishing its special object, but also according to the 
worthiness of that object itself. This standard however is not to 
be an abstraction from the notions of our own age: for, if it were, 
the accidents and prejudices of our age would much distort it; 
yet, if we fancy we are establishing an ideal, it will differ little, 
unless we have consulted the oracles of history, from such an ab- 
straction. ‘To gain a just standard, we must correct that which is 
accidental and partial in each age by the opposite bearings of 
other ages; not indeed eclectically, so as to get a mere negative 
result, but seeking by a philosophical analysis after the living prin- 
ciples which manifest themselves thus diversely. Nor will any 
one be qualified to exercise judgment, unless he has learnt from a 
course of historical discipline to understand the great problems 
which humanity is ordained to solve, their aflinity to our nature 
and to each other, their ramifications and sequence, as well as the 
faculties with which man is endowed for the solution, and the part 
which his will and conscience have to bear in the improvement 
and right employment of his faculties. 

The truth of these propositions will be recognized, at least in 
the abstract, more readily with regard to other branches of knowl- 
edge, than to theology. For in theology, it is urged, we have a 
single, fixed, determinate code of truth; and man has no task 
save to understand and interpret it. But so is the outward world 
fixed, determinate, palpable to the unerring senses, the same now, 
in its laws and main features, as it was two thousand years ago: 

21 * 


246 NOTE G. 


yet Science has been progressive. Generation after generation 
has learnt to see more in Nature, and to understand it better ; 
and there are still measureless treasures of this knowledge reserved 
for generations yet unborn. The progress indeed has not always 
been uniform. It has sometimes been retarded, sometimes 
checked, has sometimes seemed to be a recession. ‘There have 
been periods when the chief work has been to overthrow and 
sweep away the artificial structures of prior times, and to return 
with an opener, more searching, and more trustful eye to the sim- 
ple contemplation of Nature. And does not the history of the 
Church prove that this is the very course which was prescribed 
for man, in order that he might attain to a reasonable, systematic 
knowledge of divine things? Here too truths, which in one age 
are almost latent, or recognized singly and insulatedly by faith, on 
the authority of a positive declaration, are brought out more dis- 
tinctly by subsequent ages, and are ranged in their mutual con- 
nection, in their position as parts of the system of Truth, and in 
their relation to the rest of our knowledge concerning the nature 
and destinies of man. Not however that this progress is always 
an advance along the line of Truth in theology, any more than in 
other sciences. Man’s path bends aside, winds, twists, seems often 
to return upon itself. His orbit has its aphelia, as well as its peri- 
helia. When he has made a lodgment in a new field of knowl- 
edge, he will set about building a tower, the top of which, he 
fancies, shall reach to heaven: and generations, it may be, will 
spend their lives in working at such a tower, — the most conspicu- 
us example of which is the philosophy and theology of the 
Schoolmen,— until the spirit of division and confusion comes 
down among the workmen, and their own work falls about their 
heads, and they are thus admonished that they are not to mount 
to heaven by building up a tower in any one spot, but that heaven 
is near them in every part of the earth, if they will open and 
purge their eyes to see it. Thus one theological system after 
another has passed away, each however leaving behind some con- 
tribution, greater or less, to the general stock of theological truth. 
Meanwhile God’s word stands fast, even as the heavens and the 
earth, and is the mine from which every new system is extracted, 
and is the canon whereby it is to be tried ; and as more than fifty 
generations have drawn the nurture of their hearts and minds 
from it, so will generation after generation to the end of the 
world. 


NOTE G. 2AT 


I have made these remarks, because several good men have 
‘been sorely disturbed by the doctrine of the development of 
Christianity, as it has been brought forward of late by a certain 
school of our divines. Some of the German apologists for Ro- 
manism, having perceived, as could not but happen in a country 
where learning and criticism have found a home, that the old plea 
of a positive, unwritten tradition in the Church was utterly unten- 
able, as a ground for the doctrinal and practical innovations of later 
times, have fancied that they might render their Church a service 
by taking up the popular modern theory of the development of 
mankind, —a theory which has been carried into the most out- 
rageous extravagances in the contemporary schools of philosophy, 
as it has also been in France by the Saint-Simonians. This theory, 
which has been turned by others to show that Christianity itself is 
a transient religion, belonging to a bygone period, and almost ob- 
solete, they have tried to employ in defence of the Church of 
Rome. Herein, however, it was impossible for them. to succeed. 
That Church, whose constant effort, since the time when it cut it- 
self off from the living body of Christ, has been to check, to re- 
press, to cramp, to fetter the mind, could not find support in a 
theory which implies the freedom of the mind: nor can any 
Church, unless it recognize, both doctrinally and practically, that 
the property of Truth is to set the mind free. Nevertheless the 
antagonists of the Reformation among ourselves, after a like failure 
in their attempt to wrap up our limbs in the swathings of the 
early Church, have taken up the theory, which in Germany had 
been baffled, and have now found out that the Church continued 
to unfold and develop the body of Truth committed to her keep- 
ing, up to the age of the Schoolmen, and the zenith of the hierar- 
chy. As they have thus advanced by degrees from the theology 
of the first and second centuries to that of the fourth and fifth, 
and next to that of the thirteenth and fourteenth, may we not 
hope that they will in time discover how the development of 
Christian Truth did not suddenly stop short then, how the Com- 
forter did not then, or ever, abandon His office of guiding the 
Church to the whole Truth by showing it the things of Christ, 
but on the contrary came down with a mightier power and with 
tongues of fire at the age of the Reformation, and did then indeed 
take of the things of Christ, and show them to His chosen teach- 
ers, as he had not shown them before since the days of the Apos- 


248 | NOTE G. 


tles? Hence, though the ordinary English practice in judging 
of truth is, not so much to inquire into its intrinsic evidence and 
worth, as whether it-is likely to support or oppose our party pre- 
possessions and prejudices, there 1s no reason for looking with 
repugnance or dread at the theory of the development of theology, 
as if, when rightly understood, it were in itself more favorable to 
the claims of any one particular branch of the Church ; except 
indeed so far as it negatives the pretensions of any branch which 
would maintain the complete stationariness of theology, and assert 
that at some given time an absolute, ultimate scheme of Truth 
had been set up for all after ages. ‘To the words of Scripture we 
cannot add; nor may we take away from them. But Truth in 
Scripture is set before us livingly, by examples, by the utterance 
of principles, in the germ, not by the enunciation of a formal dog- 
matical system, according to which the thoughts of men were to 
be classed and rubricated forever after; nor can any human 
scheme or system make out a title to the possession of such an 
absolute, conclusive ultimatum. 

Not however that the right theory of the development of Chris- 
tian Theology by any means implies that each later age must 
necessarily have a fuller and deeper knowledge of divine things 
than its predecessors, either as spread abroad through the body of 
the Church, or as centered in its chief teachers. Were this a con- 
sequence of the theory, this alone would prove fatal to it, the very 
reverse having notoriously been often the case. But even in 
Science, which is so much less dependent on moral influences, 
and with which the varieties of character and feeling and will 
have so little to do, the progress has never been uniform and un- 
interrupted ; while in poetry, in the arts, in philosophy, where the 
understanding is greatly swayed by the moral affections, and de- 
rives a.main part of its sustenance and energy from them, man’s 
course has been so irregular, that nothing like a law of it has been 
ascertained. So too must it needs be in Theology, where the 
subject matter is divine truth, which cannot be received intel- 
lectually, unless it be also received morally, to the pure reception 
of which all the corrupt feelings of our nature are opposed, and 
which they are perpetually attempting to sophisticate and distort. 
Thus it has often come to pass that the inheritance left by one 
age has been squandered or wasted or forfeited by its successor. 
So that it by no means follows from the theory of the develop- 


NOTE @q. 249 


ment of Christian truth, that even the later system of Theology 
must be the better. For the world is always wrestling to draw 
man away from the truth, and will often prevail, as Jacob did 
over the angel: and when faith is at a low ebb, when the visible 
and immediate and material predominate in men’s hearts and 
minds over the invisible, the ideal, the spiritual, Theology must 
needs dwindle and decay. But when there is a revival of faith, 
if this revival coincides with, or is succeeded by, a period of ener- 
getic thought, a deeper or clearer insight will be gained into cer- 
tain portions of truth, especially appropriate to the circumstances 
and exigencies of the age, and which have not yet been set forth 
in their fulness. Thus, to cite the two most memorable examples, 
the true doctrine of the Trinity was brought out more distinctly 
in the fourth century, that of Justification by Faith in the six- 
teenth ; the prevalence of error acting in both instances as a mo- 
tive and spur to the clearer demarcation and exposition of the 
truth. At the same time, through man’s aptness to overleap him- 
self, and to exaggerate the importance of whatever may be en- 
gaging him at the moment, an age which has been allowed to be- 
hold a fresh truth, may too easily depreciate and let slip the truths 
which its ancestors have bequeathed to it; which proneness has 
ever been a main source of heresy. Thus on all sides we are con- 
tinually reminded of our inherent weakness, and how that weak- 
ness is ever the most mischievous when we are beguiled into 
fancying ourselves strong: and while we are hereby exhorted to 
be diligent in studying the whole history of the Church, and the 
writings of her chief teachers in every age, lest we drop and lose 
any portion of the precious riches which they have been allowed 
to win for mankind, we are still more strongly admonished to com- 
pare every proposition, and every scheme of propositions, — every 
proposition, both as it stands by itself, and in its relation to the 
other parts of Christian Truth,— with the only Canon of Truth, 
the written word of God. Thus far we may concur fully with the 
opinion expressed by Melanchthon in the Preface to his Loci 
Lheologici, that, while in the Scriptures “ Divinity has portrayed 
the most perfect image of itself, it cannot be known either more 
truly or more definitely elsewhere. He is misled who seeks a 
form of Christianity from any other source than the Canonical 
Writings. For how sadly do Commentaries deviate from the 
purity of these! In the Scripture you will find nothing inappro- 


250 NOTE @. 


priate ; in those how many things which rest upon philosophy or 
upon human judgment, which are diametrically opposed to the 
teachings of the Spirit. The writers had not so crucified the 
flesh (10 wuyixoy) that they breathed nothing except the spiritual 
(xysvpatime).” On the other hand, when he would almost confine 
divines to the study of the Scriptures themselves, he overlooks that 
Theology is subject to the same law with every other science ; and 
he is just as unreasonable, as if he had prohibited all treatises on 
agriculture, because the farmer’s best school after all is the im- 
mediate practical observation of Nature. 

One thing more, which may excite difficulties in some minds, 
requires to be just noticed. The development spoken of is that 
of theology, not of religion, which is quite another thing, and may 
exist in its fullest living power with very little knowledge of the- 
ology ; just’as a man may see the light, and see with the light, and 
fulfil all the duties of life by the light, without the slightest knowl- 
edge of optics or astronomy, — nay, may do all this far better than 
those who have the profoundest. Whatever expansion and im- 
provement theology may be susceptible of, this does not infer that 
religion is in like manner to improve, nor that religion may not 
exist in its fullest life and power, where theology has scarcely at- 
tained to a definite, orderly existence. 

To return to the point from which this digression started, — it 
is very true that, as Lampe complains, the doctrine of the satisfac- 
tion of the death of Christ is not brought forward in a distinct 
dogmatical form, as the central article of Christian Theology, in 
the first ages of the Church, by those who are especially called the 
Fathers. It was reserved for Anselm to give the first clear dog- 
matical exposition of this great cardinal truth, according to its dig- 
nity and power; as may be seen in Baur’s very learned and pro- 
found treatise on the History of the Doctrine of the Atonement. 
Yet surely the wise and Christian way of dealing with the writings 
of former ages is to seek out and be thankful for the truths which 
they do contain, not to disparage and reject these, because they 
are not combined with other truths, which, according to the order 
laid down by God for the manifestation of His counsels to the 
speculative and reflective understanding, could not stand out so 
prominently before the theological mind, until that mind had 
traversed certain previous cycles of thought. The same constel- 
lation is not always vertical even now: and they who turn their 


NOTE G. 2501 


eyes toward some other quarter of the heavens, still behold some 
configuration of heavenly truth; for God’s word is as full of truths 
as the sky of stars. Not that the order and sequence of these 
truths is immaterial: but the lively apprehension even of a subor- 
dinate truth is far more valuable than the most accurate formal 
acquaintance with the correctest system of theology. Neverthe- 
less summary censures, after the manner of Lampe’s, have been 
very common among a large body of divines, especially during 
the last century, and have mostly become more vehement with the 
increasing ignorance of dogmatical and historical theology. His- 
tories of the Church, or works so calling themselves, have been 
written, which in fact have been little else than attempts to trace 
the history of a single doctrine, such as that of Justification ; which 
has been identified by the historian with the whole of Christianity, 
and without the distinct systematic recognition of which he has 
assumed there could be no Christian life or Christian truth. Thus 
in Milner’s superficial work all the other manifestations of the 
Christian spirit and forms of Christian doctrine are well nigh passed 
over; and the readers are led to suppose that Christianity for sev- 
eral centuries was all but extinct, because the views of theologians 
on this primary doctrine were ill-defined or erroneous. Through 
the influence of such works a shallow tone of contented ignorance 
becomes prevalent; men being ever ready to lay hold on that 
which flatters their indolence and presumption, and seems to war- 
rant them in condemning peremptorily, without going through the 
labor of investigating. Yet they who speak contemptuously of 
the Fathers, because the doctrine of the satisfaction of Christ’s 
death does not hold its right supremacy in their theological system, 
would also, were they consistent, look slightingly on many books 
of Scripture itself, because in them too it has pleased God to re- 
veal other portions of the infinite riches of His truth. Nay, in this 
very passage of St. John there is nothing to carry our thoughts to 
this special view of the doctrine of the Atonement, or to indicate 
that this was the sole, or the main reason, why it was expedient 
for the disciples that Jesus should go away. Nor is this directly 
intimated in the other passage of our Gospel (xii. 24), which Lampe 
cites. There too our Lord allows us to meditate on the various 
ways in which His death was to work for the increase of His 
Church. In fact this is a quality of all divine truths, and an at- 
testation of their divine power, that their operation is not single, 


252 NOTE G. 


but manifold, — that they branch out on every side, —that they 
are the centres of numberless concentric circles, which may pass 
through very different regions of thought, but which all, if they 
preserve their relation to their centre, receive their constitutive 
principle from thence. 

Nevertheless Lampe’s own interpretation of our text recognizes 
the fulness of its meaning. To the fear of the disciples, he says, 
Jesus “ opposes the declaration of benefit to be anticipated from 
His departure. This was a new instance of condescension, that 
when they gave so little heed to the just and honorable, He should 
seek an argument from the useful. This, with the weak in faith, 
usually has far greater weight. The Scripture everywhere urges 
this benefit of Christ’s departure. This is that goodness of the 
Messiah to the Saints, Ps. 16:2; The satisfaction after the travail 
of His soul, Is. 53: 11. This, Aaron’s rod prefigured, growing, 
blossoming, and bearing fruit in the sanctuary. This He Himself 
predicted, ch. 12: 24. This very copious list may be framed of 
the benefits accruing from the departure of the Lord; as well of 
those enjoyed by the disciples in common with other believers, as 
of those which were peculiar to them in their present circum- 
stances. ‘To the formef class belong not only, in general, a full 
security of all the benefits of covenant grace hitherto obtained by 
the elect through the mediation of Christ, but also an assurance of 
the blessings of the New Testament promised by the prophets. 
That He might purchase all those things with His own blood, the 
pains of hell must be endured; and that He might obtain from 
the Father the power of distributing blessings He must enter the 
nnermost heaven. Wherefore, without His departure He could 
neither be a Prophet, — for faith in His predictions would waver, 
nor a Priest, — for He could not offer a sacrifice of sweet smelling 
savor (Heb. 8: 4), nor a King, for He could not occupy a celestial 
throne. But when by departing He had finished His course, He 
took away all condemnation by shutting up hell and by opening 
« door in heaven; He disclosed treasures of Divine fulness, and 
filled all things, (Eph. 4: 10. compare Eph. 1: 3). In addition 
there was a benefit pertaining to the Apostles alone, who by and 
on account of the departure of their Lord were to be delivered 
from blindness, from carnal prejudices, from weakness of faith, and 
were to be prepared for the ministration of the Gospel. More- 
over, the promise of the Spirit is so intimately connected with the 


NOTE G. 253 


departure of Christ, that without this it could net be hoped for, 
but after this may be expected without doubt. The groundwork 
of this connection is the perfectly voluntary decree of the Triune 
God concerning the salvation of the sinner, that, as the procuring 
of the salvation was the peculiar work of the Son, so the applica- 
tion of it should be by the operation of the Holy Spirit. As, there- 
fore, the acquisition of an inheritance precedes the . possession, so, 
- of necessity, the departure of Jesus by His passion to the Father 
opened a broader door for the operations of the Spirit and the 
distribution of His gifts. The restoration of a slave to liberty, 
présupposes the payment of his ransom. A house is founded and 
erected before it can be furnished. Reconciliation of enemies. 
must be obtained before they can be admitted to familiar inter- 
course. ‘Thus most clearly could the Father be reconciled and 
the Son be perfected the Prince of life. And although the Holy 
Spirit may be the last in the order of the work, still His divine 
Glory, from this very arrangement, shines the more brightly, since 
the divine operations seen on earth after Christ’s departure appear 
more distinctly to have the Spirit as their author. If Jesus had 
not departed He would have forfeited His recognizance, (so: to: 
speak,) which not being kept, the work of salvation would have 
been interrupted. Nor without this departure could the. Spirit 
have consistently become the Paraclete, the Advocate and the 
Comforter of the smner. For how could He undertake to be the 
patron of those who persist in their hatred of God? or comfort 
those who lie under the wrath of God? And this is made more 
certain from the other part of the verse, but 1f He should depart 
the Spirit would be sent by Him. Each step of the departure of 
Christ had its relation to the sending of the Spirit. The object of 
His passion was that He might acquire the right. (Gal. iii. 13. 14.). 
Hence the live coal was taken from the altar of burnt offering to: 
kindle a flame in Isaiah and his antitype the ministers of the New 
Testament. The object of the departure of His soul to the tri- 
bunal of the Father was that the decision of the Supreme Judge 
might accord to Him the right of sending the Spirit: which right. 
(or authority) He asserted, when, justified in the Spirit, He 
returned to earth, by breathing upon His disciples (John xx. 22). 
Especially was it the object of His departure by ascension to 
heaven to actually appropriate this authority by occupying the 
throne of glory. Thus at length the Spirit was enabled to perform. 
22 


204 NOTE G. 


its office and not only to convince the world of righteousness 
attained and of judgment established in it, but also to glorify Jesus 
now received into glory. Whence we see very clearly that this 
distribution of spiritual gifts is derived from the ascension of Christ, 
(Ps. Ixviii. 18,) and He is seen upon the throne of glory anointed 
with the oil of gladness, (Ps. xlv. 8,) and sending forth the rod of His 
strength to rule in the midst of His enemies, (Ps. ex. 2). Thus 
the day of the mystical expiation immediately preceded the Feast 
of Tabernacles, or of the joy of the Holy Spirit. Thus the train 
(skirts) of the Lord, sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, filled 
the Temple. (Is. vi. t.) The Spirit was commissioned for this 
work, viz.: that He should gather together the inheritance prom- 
ised to the Son, adorn it, bring it to Him and prepare the elect to 
pay Him honor. Thus the fire from the altar and the censer was 
cast upon the earth, (Rev. viii. 5,) and a river clear as crystal pro- 
ceeded out of the throne of the Lamb. (Rev. xxi. 1.) 

Some of the interpretations here suggested may be questionable 
and fanciful, and indicate too great a disposition to treat the Bible 
as the scattered limbs of a dogmatical system. But such interpre- 
tations, as they are more genial and profound, have far more of 
truth in them, than the meagre shallowness of the Grotian school. 
Grotius, in explaining the mysterious declaration, If I go not away, 
the Comforter will not come to you, merely says, “ For this is among 
those things which are reserved for My heavenly Kingdom ;” 
referring to a previous note, on vii. 39, where he had said the same 
thing in a greater number of words. That is, he takes hold of an 
illustration, by which the power and rightful supremacy of the 
Gospel was set forth, and thinks that, by the help of an accidental 
circumstance belonging to this illustration,—to wit, that kings 
make gifts, he has explained a mystery lying in the deepest 
recesses of our nature, and of that merciful dispensation whereby 
the unfathomable, unutterable Love of God poured itself forth in 
jinimaginable fulness to reunite the apostate race of man to itself. 
Tn fact such explanations explain nothing: they merely evade and 
slur over the difficulty. 

In like manner Andrewes, as is often the case with him, spins 
out a metaphor in lieu of an argument, when, to prove the expe- 
diency of the Spirit’s coming, he says, in the Sermon already 
referred to, “ A word is of no force, though written, which we 
call a deed, till the seal be added: that maketh it authentical. 


NOTE G. 250 


God hath borrowed those very terms from us: Christ is the Word ; 
the Holy Ghost the Seal, in quo signati estis (Eph. iv. 30). isi 
veniat, if the Seal come not too, nothing is done. Yea, the very 
will of a testator, when it is sealed, is still in suspense, till adminis- 
tration be granted. Christ is the Testator of the New Testament: 
the Administration is the Spirit’s (1 Cor. xii. 5). If that come 


not, the testament is to small purpose.” This is little else than ~ 


ingenious idleness. Men who have some liveliness of fancy, with 
little depth or power of imagination, and who are therefore quick 
in catching likenesses, superficial or verbal, but have no clear 
insight into the essences of things, or into the manner in which 
analogies consist with and imply differences, are very apt thus to 
substitute a mere play upon words for reasoning. This however 
is an inversion of the right logical process. When we read that 
it is by the Holy Spirit that we are sealed unto the day of redemp- 
tion, our need of the Spirit is plain; but it perplexes and misleads, 
much more than it helps us, to have the living Word of God 
identified with the dead words of a deed, and the living seal of 
the Spirit with the dead seal on a deed, and to be told that, be- 
cause the deed is incomplete without its seal, therefore the opera- 
tion of the living Word is incomplete without the living seal of 
the Spirit: for it is not the deed, but we, who are said by St. Paul 
to be sealed by the Spirit. In fact it would have been just as logi- 
eal to have argued, that, because St. Paul speaks of circumcision 
as the seal of the righteousness that is by faith, therefore the deed 
of the Word was incomplete without this seal of circumcision, or 
without any thing else that the Scriptures in any place compare 
toaseal. The relation between a deed and a seal does not beget 
a relation between all things that may be compared to either of 
them. In mathematical reasoning, it is true, we use symbols in 
place of things; and our deductions with regard to, the symbols 
hold of the things in place of which they stand; that is, so far as 
relates to the accidents of place and number, and to those proper- 
ties of material objects which may be brought under the category 
of number. But these processes are not applicable to spiritual 
realities; and the application of analogies to them, though useful 
and indispensable for the sake of elucidation, is scarcely servicea- 
ble beyond. St. Paul, to whose authority Andrewes refers, does 
indeed employ an argument (Gal. iii. 15), which at first sight may 
seem somewhat similar; but, when examined, it is found to be 


{— 


256 NOTE G. 


very different. For what he urges is, that, even in a human 
engagement, when it has once been ratified, he who has made it 
does not retain the power of revoking it. Thus the argument 
turns upon a moral analogy: its force lies in the obligatoriness of 
a plighted word. It might be expressed thus: as even in the 
dealings between man and man, when any one has bound himself 
by a formal engagement, he cannot revoke or alter it, much more 
may we feel sure that the promise, which was made to Abraham 
by the God of perfect truth, cannot have been revoked or set 
aside by the subsequent enactment of the Law. Whereas the 
seal aflixed to a bond is» something wholly external, and a mere 
accident of human institution; and thus is ill fitted to interpret 
the divine necessity for the coming of the Spirit.* Still more 
irrelevant is the second remark; in which Andrewes confounds 
the administration of the gifts of the Spirit, spoken of in the Epis- 
tle to the Corinthians, with the administration of a Testament. 
Such trifling is too common in our good Bishop, and needs to be 
noticed now that the value of his writings, great as it is, is exag- 
gerated beyond all measure. In Coleridge’s Remains (au. 104. 
117.175) this fondness for fantastic and verbal analogies, which 
was so prevalent in a large portion of our Jacobite and Caroline 
divines, is ascribed to their study of the Fathers. ‘There may be 
some truth in this remark: at least a large part of the Fathers are 
tainted with the same fault: but it is much the same thing as we 
find in so many poets of Charles the First’s time, who in like 
manner substitute fanciful images and fantastical combmations for 
imaginative impersonations and harmonies: nor is this practice 
confined to the poets. Indeed this is an ordinary characteristic of 


* As this sheet is passing through the press, I observe that Coleridge, in 
‘his notes on Luther’s Tabletalk (Remains, iv. 41), has said, ‘* Metaphors are 
‘sorry logic, especially metaphors from human, and those too conventional 
usages to the ordinances of eternal wisdom :’’ and this remark happens to 
be made with reference to the very same metaphor, as used by Luther to 
establish the necessity of the outward sign in Baptism: “A bare writing 
without a‘seal is of no force.” Luther’s argument however is more valid 
than that of Andrewes. It runs thus, that God has been pleased in His 
various dispensations to connect spiritual blessings with outward signs, 
and that we have no warrant for believing that what God has thus joined 
together may be parted by man. On the application of human analogies 
to divine things Luther himself has some excellent observations in his 
note on the passage of the Epistle to the Galatians. 


NOTE G. 257 


the state of transition between an imaginative or spiritual age and 
one under the predominance of the reflective, critical understand- 
ing. Being unable to soar with the eagle and the lark, the Faney 
is ever striving that its plumage, which cannot bear it upward, 
shall at least have a beauty like that of the peacock and the 
ostrich. But, while the Imagination, at least the passive and 
receptive, is an invaluable auxiliary in the philosophical mind, — 
witness Plato, Augustin, Bacon, Leibnitz, Berkeley, Schelling, — 
the Fancy is apt to delude all who play with it, as happens at 
times even to Bacon. At all events the divines of the seventeenth 
century, with all their learning, and their multiplicity of talents, 
yet in spiritual depth and power, in simple earnest energy, and in 
the faculty of piercing to the heart of truth, are very inferior to 
the greater Reformers, especially to those of Germany, and to 
Calvin. . . 

“ But then (Andrewes proceeds) there ariseth a new difficulty 
upon St non abiero. We see a necessity of His coming; but we 
see no necessity of Christ’s going. Why not Christ stay, and yet 
He come ?— Are they like to buckets? * one cannot go down, 
unless the other go up? If it be so expedient, He come, Christ, 
I trust, is not impedient but He may come. — It cannot be denied, 
They two can stay together well enough; and the time shall 
come, we shall enjoy Them both together, and the Father with 
Them. ‘That time is not yet: now it is otherwise. Not for any 
let in Themselves; that is not all; but for some further matter 


* This is the reading in the folio of 1641. In the recent Oxford edition 
it is, “ like fvo buckets: ’’ but this would seem to be merely one of the 
many instances in which the text in that edition has been corrupted, either 
through carelessness, or through a want of familiarity with the language 
and idiom of former times. The simile itself is a most extraordinary and 
offensive one, and in many writers would justly have been deemed very 
profane.. In a man of such reverent spirit as Andrewes it cannot have 
been so, but is only another proof of the predominance of the fancy over 
the imagination in his mind: he caught at the outward likeness, but did 
not realize his imagery. Still the meeting with such a passage, — and 
there are others of a like kind, —in Bishop Andrewes may soften the judg- 
ment of many, who are ready to cry out against familiarity of expression 
and illustration in other writers on sacred subjects, for example, in Latimer 
or Luther. Yet Luther at least, with all his boundless freedom of speech, 
and desire of going straight to the heart of his Saxon peasantry, would 
have been preserved from such a simile by his high spiritual imagination, 
and lively apprehension of all divine truth; as would Bunyan. 

22 * 


258 NOTE q. 


and considerations noted by the Fathers. — First, for veniel. 
The Holy Ghost cannot come as He should. He should come as 
God. The stay of Christ would have been a let of the manifesta- 
tion of His Godhead. To manifest His Godhead being to show 
great signs and work great wonders, if Christ had still remained, 
they would not well have been distinguished, and great odds have 
been ascribed to Christ. So the Holy Ghost have wanted that 
_ honor* and estimation due to him: an impeachment it would have 
been to His divinity. But Christ ascending, all such imaginations 
cease. From mittam eum: a little + impeachment it would have 
been to Christ’s equality with His Father. For, He not going to 
send Him, but staying still here, the sending of the Spirit would 


have been ascribed to the Father alone, as His sole act. This — 


would have been the most; that the Father for His sake had sent 
Him; but He, as God, had had no honor of the sending.” Verily 
these sweepings of the Fathers yield sad rubbishy divinity. It is 
painful to see the ineffable relation of the three Persons of the 
ever-blessed Trinity, each of whom is ever pouring Himself forth 
in the infinite, inexhaustible fulness of love, thus degraded by 
the introduction of the rivalities of human sovereignty, and the 
jealous assertion of personal honor. 

Far better than this is it to rest in a generality like that of 
Curcellaeus (Relig. Christ. Instit. v. 19) “Nis Christus in coelum 
ascendisset, non potuisset super fideles suos mittere Spiritum 
Sanctum, quia tantum munus ex decreto Dei erat glorificationt 
ejus reservatum, ut de illa eflicax et irrefragabile testimonium 
perhiberet.” 

In our times Guenther, who holds a high place among the 
philosophers and Romanist divines of Germany, has spoken about 
this verse, according to its intimate connection with the whole 
mystery of Redemption, in his Vorschule zur Spekulativen Theol- 
ogie. “As the divine Idea of the Creature comes forward into 


“* The Oxford Edition reads, ‘So the Holy Ghost had wanted the honor.” 
‘The license which the Editor of that reprint has allowed himself, inclines 
me to suppose that these alterations also have been made without authori- 
ty. The elliptical construction have, would being understood out of the 
preceding sentence, is quite in Andrewes’ style. 

+ Little is the reading in the folio of 1641, as well as in the new Oxford 
edition: but I cannot help thinking it probable that Andrewes wrote “a 
like impeachment.” 


eas em 


NOTE G. 259 


objective reality through the Son, so it is through the Spirit that 
the Creature returns back into the Godhead, by virtue of the 
same original union. And thus it appears how, in the outpouring 
of the Holy Ghost upon all flesh, as the special Incarnation of the 
Third Divine Person, the Redemption of mankind, as the work of 
God, attained to its consummation. — For in order to the restora- 
tion of the human race, it was not solely and exclusively requisite 
that there should be a Second Man, fulfilling the idea of man; 
but to this condition on God’s part, was added another on the 
part of the Second Man, namely, His vicarious obedience, by way 
of satisfaction. In short the whole work of Redemption cannot 
be regarded, like that of Creation, among the normal actions of 
God; inasmuch as on the one hand it implies the falling away of 
the first man from God, which God did not will, as its negative 
condition, and on the other hand, as its positive condition on the 
side of mankind, the cooperation of the creaturely freedom in the 
Second Adam. 

“Now this extraordinariness in the restoring love of God was 
not merely manifested by the participation of all the three Per- 
sons of the Godhead in this one, as in every other outward act of 
revelation; but this participation itself was of a peculiar kind. 
For the humanity in Christ does not seem to have been a Crea- 
ture of the Word, as the first Adam was, although the Word was 
really and hypostatically united to it; but Christ, as the Son of 
Man, at least according to the spiritual elements of His humanity, 
appears to have been no less the Only-begotten of the Father, 
than He was according to His divine Nature. In the Creed His 
conception, as the primary union of the creaturely spirit with the 
physical elements derived from the blood of the Virgin, or as the 
formation of the latter into corporeity, is expressly ascribed to the 
Holy Ghost, not to the Word, by whom every thing was made, 
that was made. And after Christ, as the Son of man, and in a 
real, inseparable union with the Eternal Son, had purged away 
the guilt of His race by His merits, and thereby had at the same 
time removed the fundamental hindrance to all real union of His 
brethren with God, the Spirit of God again entered into His 
original dynamical communion with the race, that they who had 
been delivered from guilt by the Incarnate Son, might also be 
raised out of their everlasting punishment, that is, their separation 
from God. 


260 NOTE @. 


“Hence we may further see how the declarations of the Saviour 
concerning the Holy Ghost, — for instance, Jf I go not away, the 
Comforter cannot come to you ; but if I go, I will send Him to you, 
—have not merely a figurative rhetorical purpose, as being in- 
tended to cheer his downcast disciples after a human manner, but 
contain a true metaphysical sense: for in them the supersensual 
relation of the Word to the Spirit, in Their participation in the 
one work of Redemption, is clearly expressed; through which 
relation Their Functions, as well as Their Persons, excluded 
each other, to the end that by means of this reciprocal exclusion 
itself They might manifest Their holy personal interest in this 
greatest work of God’s love. So that He, who took away our 
guilt immediately by His merits, also took away the punishment 
of our guilt, our separation from God, mediately. Moreover, hay- 
ing obtained the Holy Spirit, by whom alone all creatures are 
united to God, the Spirit of God, for our sinful race, He could 
also send Him, and at the same time could determine the condi- 
tions and modes under which the Spirit might and was to enter 
into communion with the human race, and the human race with 
the Spirit of God, until the end of the world.” Vol. ii. pp. 322- 
324. 

In reading the work just cited, since the former part of this 
Note was written, I have found some excellent observations, 
which so strongly confirm what has been said about the develop- 
ment of theology, and throws so much light on the process, that I 
will extract the most important part of them. By a somewhat 
singular coincidence they also turn on the epoch formed in Chris- 
tian theology by Anselm’s theory on the union of the two natures 
in Christ, and on the satisfaction of His death; and they rest their 
authority on that promise of the Comforter, which is immediately 
connected with the main argument of these Sermons, and which 
Guenther rightly interprets as an assurance that the Spirit of God 
will guide the Church through all ages to the whole truth. By 
several Protestant divines on the other hand this assurance is 
restricted to the Apostles; and some,—as for instance Curcel- 
laeus, in his Jnstitutio, 1. xi. 4, —have urged the passage so inter- 
preted, as overthrowing the pretensions of the Romish Church, 
_ and proving that every truth, which was ever to be apprehended 
by the Church, was immediately revealed to the Apostles, and was 
by them committed to writing in an explicit dogmatical or cate- 


NOTE G. 261 


chetical form, so that the Church from that time forward might 
dispense with all further illumination. Yet verily it is almost 
tantamount to a surrender of our arms, if we cannot maintain our 
cause, except by denying the abiding presence of the Spirit, as 
the Guide and Teacher of the Church, ever leading it, according 
to its needs, to the whole Truth. Only this promise, like all the 
others in Scripture, is conditional. The presence of the Spirit. 
does not extinguish our power of resisting Him, and following our 
own devices, either intellectually or morally: nor will He guide 
us to the Truth, unless we consent and desire to be guided to it. 
Nor again has any one branch of the Church, or any body of men 
therein, ever obtained an exemption from that liability and apt- 
ness to err, which is inherent in the tendencies of our carnal 
nature, and through which so many Churches fell away from the 
Truth in the very first ages of Christianity. But let me proceed 
to the quotation from Guenther. 

‘In studying the history of Theology, werhave especial need to 
bear in mind our Lord’s saying, Blessed is he who shall not be 
offended at Me. A theologian who does not keep his eyes fixed 
on this polestar, may lose his faith in Him who declared, I am with 
you unto the end of the world; just as a materialist, in studying 
profane history, will throw it out of his hand as a chronique scan- 
daleuse, exclaiming, There is no God, no Providence. The whole 
history of the world is a mummy, with deep channels of tears; 
but, being a mummy, it cannot of itself interpret for after-ages, 
whether those tears were shed from joy or sorrow. It must there- 
fore be awakened to life. This however can only be done through 
and in the Spirit of Him, who cried at the grave of Lazarus, 
Lazarus come forth. He who cannot believe in this revivification, 
may spare us his wisdom, which discovers that the source of these 
dried channels of tears was the weak or blear eyes of the Church. 
Such a man should first be admonished, Friend, buy thyself 
some eyesalve, that thou mayst be able to discern the meaning of 
those words of the Lord, I have yet many things to say to you; but 
ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of Truth, 
is come, He will guide you to the whole Truth; a promise which 
' extends to the latest preachers of the Gospel, as well as to the 
first. ‘The same Spirit is still at this hour fulfilling the promise of 
Him who sent Him, that He would convince the world of Sin, if 
it did not believe in Him who was espoused to mankind in His 


262 NOTE @. 


Church: that He would convince the world of the righteousness 
of Jesus Christ, who, after He had taken our judgment upon 
Him, became our Righteousness, and who, ever since He was 
received into heaven, leads and guides His chosen flock, like a 
good Shepherd, with Righteousness, through the Spirit of God, 
whom He has sent in His stead, and thus lastly convinces the 
world of that judgment, which He continually exercises over the 
Prince of this world as the father of error and of lies. — 

“ Certain principles however, which apply to the whole history 
of Christianity, need to be especially observed in the history of 
Christian doctrines. In the first place we are to regard each dogma 
as the product of the reciprocal action of those primary truths 
(which lie in Christianity, as in a grand fact, exhibited in life and 
doctrine), as they operate on’ the mind of man, and of the reaction 
of the human mind endeavoring to possess itself of that which 
Christianity gives to it. In short the system of dogmas is the pro- 
duct of the interpenetration of two factors, a given object and a 
recipient subject; or it is the expression of the insight into Chris- 
tian truth in the minds of believers. When this living intellectual 
process is once commenced, it cannot but be carried on continually. 
in a determinate order and sequence; because the two coeflicients 
themselves stand each under its own law, which arises out of its 
peculiar character. Hence in a history of Theology we must not 
leave the general state of human knowledge out of account; 
because this, in its influence on the mind, will in every age be the 
medium of, and therefore modify the above-mentioned reaction of 
the mind on the substance of Christianity. For it is not Chris- 
tianity alone, that, as a fact of time, excites the mind of man to 
intellectual activity : it finds men’s minds already involved in this 
intellectual process with the whole world of time and space. On 
the other hand those ideas which mount victoriously out of Chris- 
tianity into man’s subjective consciousness, exercise an influence, 
no less rich in blessing than in victory, on the state of human 
knowledge. That this victory however of Christianity within the 
pale of Science is only completed by degrees, in the course of 
centuries, is proved by the dominion of Platonic ideas in the The- 
ology of the first centuries, and by that of Aristotelian in the The- — 
ology of the middle ages. Even Origen, with all the originality 
of his mind, could not break the matter across his knee: when he 
tried to do so, he almost broke with the spirit of the Church, which 


NOTE G. 2638 


could not say Yes to many of his positions, although it could not 
justify its Wo till long after. . 

‘‘ Not that every product of these intellectual processes is in the 
spirit of Christianity: for individuals, —in whom positive dogmas 
first settle into form,— may err; both willingly and unwillingly, 
wittingly and unwittingly. But the spirit of Christianity will 
always endeavor to throw off these adverse formations as abnor- ~ 
mities. Hence the history of Heresies is an important part in the 
history of Theology, not merely for the sake of historical com- 
pleteness, but mainly because by their attack and contradiction 
the resistance and answer of the Church has almost always been 
modified ; and finally because life can only manifest itself through 
its functions, among which the rejection of what is indigestible and 
alien maintains an honorable place as an internal organic act of 
self-defence. Hence Theology, in its formation and expansion, 
whether in unison or in opposition to the spirit of Christianity, 
can never escape from the influence of the prevalent condition of 
knowledge, inasmuch as this essentially is nothing else than the 
insight of the human mind into its‘own nature and its objects. — 

“ Thus our insight into Christian truth admits of degrees and 
augmentations, which depend partly on the intensity of individual 
intelligence, partly on the extensiveness of the horizon of knowl- 
edge. At the same time it must be borne in mind that a higher 
sphere of knowledge does not exclude, but includes the lower, if 
concerning the same subject matter, and in the same spirit of 
Christianity —Hence, if we examine the whole body of Christian 
Theology, as a formation of positive doctrine, we find two elements 
in it, one permanent, and the other variable. The former is that 
which has been completely established by previous research; the 
latter, that which is still going through the investigations ante- 
cedent to positive knowledge. This latter part owes its origin 
mainly to the conflict between Philosophy, in the widest sense of 
that word, and Theology; but also in part to the desire of deduc- 
ing consequences from premises that have been ascertained; 
which consequences are insecure, in proportion to their distance 
from their foundation. 

“A speculative theologian therefore may err in two ways. He 
may treat the permanent element in the Theology of his age as 
variable, or try to maintain the variable as permanent: in short 
he may sacrifice either of the two to the other. The former pro- 


Pa 


264 NOTE G. 


cedure is called Heterodoxy, the latter Hyperorthodoxy. Between 
the two stands orthodoxy ; which not only seeks to preserve what 
has already been established, but also to bring what is still under 
discussion into unison therewith, though without endeavoring to 
carry out this harmony at the cost of any thing essential, whether 
in substance or form. On the other hand, with regard to Hetero- 
doxy, it is plain that, where that which is permanent is set in solu- 
tion, the variable must in a certain sense for the moment assume 
the character of immutability; as it 1s, with regard to Hyperor- 
thodoxy, that, where opinions assume the authority of dogmas, 
every thing like movement or development in the dogmas them- 
selves must be utterly rejected; and even a higher, as contrasted 
with a lower, insight into the same dogma, whether attained with 
or without aid and a stimulus on the part of human philosophy, 
will be designated, if not as contrary to faith, or heretical, at least 
as dangerous to faith, or neological. By such minds, if they hap- 
pen to possess power, heavy storms may indeed be called up on 
the horizon of the Church, but assuredly none will be charmed or 
allayed. For in profane sciences likewise, and consequently in 
philosophy also, as being in a formal sense the science of sciences, 
there is a permanent and a variable element. Nor is this perma- 
nent element merely the empirical foundation belonging to each 
science, but also, as in Theology, its essential form, that is, the 
body of knowledge which has at the time been gained and estab- 
lished: and this will lay claim to a like and in a certain sense a 
dogmatical character; which claims at particular periods will be 
very pressing, and, if they are rejected, will occasion a schism not 


easily to be healed between Philosophy and Theology, whence. 


incalculable injury may result even, to the outward life of the 
Church. 

“ A disciple of the school of Voltaire might indeed object, that, 
what the learned divines at any period in the history of the Church 
did not know, was at all events known to the Holy Ghost, and that 
He might have taught it to them. To which question I would only 
reply by asking, Why did the same Spirit, who spake by the 
mouth of the prophets under the old Covenant, merely declare the 
Unity of the Godhead, and not the Trinity, by the mouth of Moses 
to the chosen people? ‘The answer to this question will probably 
refer on the one hand to the plan of the Divine Wisdom for the 
education of the Jewish people, and on the other hand to the Poly- 


* 


at 


NOTE H. 269 


theism of the ancient world, which made such a strict opposition 
necessary. It might be added, that omitting to declare the whole 
truth is not equivalent to a declaration of untruth or error. For 
my own part, I am satisfied with an answer, which enables us to 
discern the wisdom of the Saviour already working under the old 
Covenant, — I have many things to say to you; but ye cannot bear 
them now.” 11. 230-239. 

With these words, which bring us back to our text, we may 
close this long Note, wherein what may seem digressive is at least 
intimately connected with the work of the Spirit, as He has been 
pleased to manifest His wisdom in the discipline and training of 
the Church. 


Note H: p. 50. 


An inquiry of the deepest interest is suggested by these pas- 
sages of St. John concerning the distinctive character and meas- 
ure of the operation of the Holy Spirit under the earlier and 
later Dispensation. The prophets of old, we read, spake as they 
were moved by the Holy Ghost: the Psalmist lives under the con- 
viction that whatever is good in him arises from the influence of 
the Spirit of God: he prays that he may be upheld by that influ- 
ence, that it may not be taken away from him: our Lord Him- 
self tells the disciples that, though the world could not receive the 
Spirit of Truth, though it saw Him not, nor knew Him, yet they 
knew Him, and that He dwelt with them. On the other hand, the 
text declares that our Lord’s departure was the indispensable con- 
dition, without which the Comforter would not come: the same 
thing is clearly implied, though not so directly enounced, in the 
other passages in His last Discourse, where He cheers the disci-. 
ples with the promise of the Paraclete: and in an earlier chapter 
of the same Gospel (vii. 39), we learn that the. Spirit was not yet 
given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. Now how are these 
seemingly opposite assertions to be reconciled ? and in what. 
sense are we to understand that the gift of the Spirit was re-- 
served till after our Lord’s glorification? Let us inquire how 
these questions, which are so intimately connected with the whole- 
argument of these Sermons, have been discussed and answered, 


generally in reference to the last-cited verse of St. John, by some 
23 


266 NOTE H. 


of the most thoughtful divines in various ages of the Church. In 
doing so, however, I will not stop to speak of the support which 
the Macedonian heresy fancied it derived from the common read- 
ing in this verse, Olxw yuo nv Iystua tyvov. For even if 
Lachmann’s reading, OUaw yao iy Hveipa Sedouevoy, be not the 
true one, it is sufficiently proved by Heinsius (zercitat. Sacr. 
924. 236. 811. Aristarch. Sac. 688,) that something equivalent 
must be understood from the context. Indeed, the passage would 
otherwise be in direct contradiction to the whole tenor of Scrip- 
ture. Nor again need we examine the manner in which this 
verse was made to serve its part in the controversy on the Pro- 
cession of the Holy Spirit: he who is curious on this point may 
refer to Petavius, De Trinitate, vu. 4. 2. 

Our immediate questions have been discussed several times by 
Augustin, for instance in his Discourses on St. John (Tract xxxi). 
«© What does He mean by saying: For the Spirit was not yet given, 
because Jesus was not yet glorified? 'The sense is perfectly clear. 
Not that the Spirit of God, which was with God, did not exist ; 
but that He was not as yet in those who had believed in Jesus. 
For so the Lord Jesus determined not to bestow upon them that 
Spirit of which we have spoken until after His resurrection ; and 
this not without reason. And perhaps, if we seek, He will grant 
that we may find; and if we knock, He will open that we may 
enter. Piety knocks, not the hand; though even the hand may 
knock, if it does not cease from deeds of mercy. What then is 
the reason why the Lord Jesus Christ determined not to give the 
Holy Spirit until He should be glorified ? Before we answer 
this, as we propose to do, let us inquire how it could be that the 
Spirit was not as yet in pious men, when in the Gospel it is said 
of our Lord, just after His birth, that Simeon knew Him in the 
Holy Ghost; Anna, also, the widowed prophetess; and even 
John who baptized Him; Zacharias, filled with the Holy Ghost, 
said many things; and Mary herself received the Holy Ghost, 
that she might become the mother of our Lord. So that we have 
many previous indications of the Holy Spirit before the Lord was 
elorified by the resurrection of Mis body. For even the Prophets 
had no other Spirit when they predicted the future coming of 
Christ. But the manner of His bestowment was indeed to be one 
which had never appeared before ; of this He speaks. For never 
before do we read of an assembly of men, who, on receiving the 


NOTE Hy ig 264 


Holy Ghost, spake inthe languages of all nations. Moreover, 
after His resurrection, when :Hevappeared to His disciples, He 
said to them: Receive ye the Ffoly Ghost: 1m respect to this there- 
fore it is said: "Phe Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not 
yet glorified: And che: breathed on them who by a breath gave 
life to the firstuman‘and raised him from the dust, giving strength 
to his limbs; signifying that this was He who now breathed upon 
them, that:they might rise from the dust of earth and renounce 
its works. It was then after His resurrection, (which the Evan- 
gelist calls glorification), that the Lord first gave the Holy Spirit 
to his disciples. Then having sojourned with them forty days, He 
ascended to heaven. There, ten days having elapsed, on the day 
of Pentecost He sent the Holy Ghost from above. This as I have 
said, descending filled those who were assembled in one place, 
and they spake in the tongues of all nations.” 

That this is a very inadequate, meagre explanation, is plain. 
In every inquiry into the nature of those gifts of the Spirit, which 
were not to be bestowed till after our Lord’s Ascension, we should 
keep our minds fixed on those words of His, which unfortunately 
are mostly lost sight of, He that believeth in Me, out of his heart 
shall flow rivers of living water: for these words are expressly 
declared by St. John to refer to the Spirit, that they who belveve 
in Jesus were to receive ; it being immediately after these words 
that he adds, the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because Jesus was 
not yet glorified. The close connection thus established between 
the special gift of the Spirit, which was to follow on the Ascen- 
sion, and these words of our Lord, is quite sufficient to overthrow 
divers interpretations of the promise of the Comforter, and among 
others that just cited from Augustin ; in whom indeed there ts the 
less excuse for it, as it occurs in a continuous Commentary, and 
he had just been speaking of the very words which refute his 
explanation. For assuredly the rivers of living water, which are 
to flow out of the hearts of believers in Christ, must be something 
very different from the gift of tongues, and must mean spirit- 
ual gifts. So indeed Augustin had just interpreted the expres- 
sion, though somewhat narrowly: “ What is a fountain and what 
is a river which flows out of the heart of man? It is good will, 
which desires to provide for his neighbor. For if he regards that 
which he imbibes as only sufficient for himself, the living water 
does not flow from his heart: but if he hastens to provide for his 


268 . : NOTE H. 
neighbor, then, by reason of flowing, it does not dry up.” After- 
ward, too, when considering how the gift of the Spirit was perpet- 
uated in the Church, seeing that the miraculous gift of tongues 
‘was transient, he says that the gift of tongues was preserved in 
the knowledge of languages, and that we also receive the Spirit, 
“Cif we love the church, if we are knit together in love, if we glory 
in the Catholic name and faith.” 

The Discourse is wound up with a fine specimen of his peculiar 
rhetoric, though here too the explanation is of no worth as such. 
“Wherefore then did our Lord wish to bestow the Spirit after 
His resurrection, whose benefits are chiefly within us, since, by 
the Spirit, the love of God was shed abroad in our hearts? What 
did it signify ? That in our resurrection our love should quicken 
into flame and separate from the love of the world, in order to cen- 
tre wholly in God. For in this world we are born and die; let 
us not love this: but let us depart in love, in love let us dwell on 
high, in that love which we cherish towards God. Let us think 
of nothing else in our pilgrimage on earth but that we shall not 
always remain here, and then by a righteous life we shall prepare 
for ourselves a place whence we shall never depart. For our Lord 
Jesus Christ, after He has risen, dicth now no more ; death shall have 
no more dominion over Him. Behold what we should love. If we 
live, if we believe in Him who arose, He will bestow upon us, not 
what men love here who do not love God, or love so much the 
more as they love Him less, and on the other hand love this so 
much the less as they love Him more. But let us see what He has 
‘promised us: not earthly and temporal riches, not honor and power 
in this life, — not even health of body, nor long life, nor a beauti- 
ful form: none of these things has He promised us who said: who- 
soever believeth in Me may come and drink ; and out of his heart 
shall flow rivers of living water. He promised life eternal, where 
we shall fear nothing, where we shall not be disturbed, whence we 
shall never depart, where we cannot die. — Since therefore this is 
what He promised to us who love Him and are glowing with holy 
affections, He accordingly chose not to bestow the Spirit until He 
was glorified; that He might exhibit in His own person that life 
which we do not now enjoy, but which we hope for in the resur- 
rection.” All this may do well as an application, or what is not 
always appropriately termed an improvement, of the text in a ser- 
mon; but it is a mere misunderstanding to deem such imaginative 


NOTE H. 269 


analogies an explanation of the reason why the Spirit was not 
given till after our Lord was glorified. 

Again, in the same work (Tractat. lii.) on the words Now shall 
the Prince of this world be cast out (xii. 31), Augustin asks 
whether he had not already been cast out from the hearts of the 
patriarchs and the prophets and the righteous men of old, and re- 
plies that this casting out was only partial, compared to the extent. 
of that which was about to take place ; and he illustrates this by a 
reference to the partial gift of the Spirit in former ages, and the 
general gift on the day of Pentecost, when all were to speak with 
tongues. The same explanation occurs also in his Treatise on 
the Trinity, iv. 29. 

In one of his earlier writings, the Liber de Diversis Quaestioni- 
bus (Ixii), he asks, — with reference to the statement in St. John 
Gv. 1), that Jesus baptized more disciples than John, “It is asked 
whether those who were baptized, at that time received the Holy 
Spirit? For it is said in another place: The Spirit was not yet 
given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. We might readily an- 
swer thus; that the Lord Jesus, who even raised the dead, might 
have permitted none of them to die, until, after His glorification 
(i. e. resurrection and ascension), they had received the Holy 
Spirit. But we are reminded of the thief to whom He said: 
Verily I say unto thee, this day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise, 
though he had not even received baptism. Although Cornelius 
and the Gentiles, who believed with him, might have received the 
Holy Spirit before they were baptized; yet I do not see how that 
robber could say without the Spirit’s aid: Lord, remember me, 
when thou comest into thy kingdom. For no one saith that Jesus is 
Lord, says the Apostle, but by the Holy Ghost. But the Lord him- 
self indicated the fruit of the robber’s faith, by saying: Verily, I 
say unto thee, this day shalt thou be with me in Paradise. As then, 
through the mysterious power and righteousness of an overruling 
God, even baptism was imputed to the believing thief, and that was 
accounted as received in a willing mind, which he could not receive 
in a crucified body, so the Holy Spirit was privately imparted before 
our Lord’s glorification, but made more public after the manifes- 
tation of His Divinity. And this was said: But the Spirit was not 
yet given; 1. e., not yet was it so apparent, that all would confess 
that it was given. Even as the Lord was not yet glorified among 
men, but still His eternal glory never ceased to exist. And as the 

23 * 


270 NOTE H. 


Lord’s advent was understood to be a bodily appearance, and yet, 
before this appearance, He was spoken of in all the holy prophets 
as the Word of God and the Wisdom of God; so also the advent 
of the Holy Spirit was an appearance to their bodily eyes, when 
there appeared a cloven flame upon them and they began to speak 
with tongues. For if the Holy Spirit was not in men before the 
Lord’s visible glorification, how could David say : And take not thy 
Holy Spirit from me.— Moreover, as our Lord Himself most cer- 
tainly possessed and bore about with Him the Holy Spirit, in Mis 
own person, when he came to John to be baptized, and yet after 
He was baptized the Holy Ghost descended upon Him in the form 
of a dove; so, also, we must understand that, even before the mani- 
festation and visible advent of the Holy Spirit, His presence was 
secretly enjoyed by all men who were pious. We conclude, 
therefore, that we may safely understand by this visible demon- 
stration of the Holy Spirit, that in some indescribable er even 
inconceivable manner His full influences were more freely poured 
into the hearts of men.” 

In this passage also too much stress is laid on the miraculous 
gift of tongues, which is not a perceptible element, either in our 
Lord’s promise of the Comforter, or in His previous words, refer- 
ring, as we are told by St. John, to the subsequent gift of the 
Spirit. This earlier exposition, however, leaves more room for 
the true spiritual sense of the promise than the later ones. There 
is another passage too in this extract which shows how youth is 
often wiser than age. For it is a melancholy instance of the ten- 
dency of growing years, especially if spent much in controversy, 
to narrow and stiffen the mind, to find Augustin in his Retracta- 
tions recalling, or at least hesitating to recognize, the admission 
here made, that the penitent thief might be saved without the 
external baptismal act. It is sad to find him in one of his later 
works, the Treatise De Anima et ejus Origine (4.11), trying to 
evade the force of his own argument, by remarking that no one 
knows whether the thief may not have been baptized beforehand, 
or whether he was not baptized then on the cross by the water 
which issued from our Lord’s side. I am not wishing to detract 
from one of the greatest teachers whom God has ever raised up to 
preach the Gospel of Truth and Love: but now that our Church 
is threatened with a revival of patrolatry, it is right that notice 
Should be drawn to the defects, as well as to the excellences of 


NOTE H. Dak 


the Fathers; so that we may not receive their dicta without prov- 
ing them, as people are always ready to admit whatever will save 
them the labor and responsibility of thought, — nor be inveigled 
into sacrificing truth to their authority. Moreover this passage of 
Augustin may serve as a salutary warning against a morbid ten-| 
dency, lamentably prevalent in these days among our writers on ) 
theological and ecclesiastical matters, to twist and warp the sim- | 
plest facts, to wrench and distort the plainest declarations of 
Scripture, and to hatch and scrape together the most sophistical | 
arguments and the most fantastical hypotheses, rather than submit 
to what makes against some favorite notion or fancy. Yet Augus- 
tin knew the truth here: he had known it thirty years before, 
when he wrote his earlier work: and in this very passage he cites 
Cyprian’s letter to Jubaianus, where the penitent thief is ranked 
with the catechumens who fell under persecution before they 
were baptized, and were thus baptized in their blood. With his 
ever-ready sententious eloquence too, he says, “ That he confessed 
the Lord crucified, is accounted of as great weight, and is valued 
as much by Him who knew how to value these things, as if he had 
been crucified for the Lord. For his faith derived strength from 
the cross, when that of the disciples failed. They were in despair 
because Jesus was dying; he had hope in One who was expiring 
with him: they fled from the Author of their life; he made sup- 
plication to the Sharer of his punishment: the disciples mourned 
Christ’s death as if He were a man; the thief believed that He 
would reign after death: the former deserted the Surety of their 
salvation; the latter honored his Companion on the cross. A par- 
allel to the martyrs is found in him, who believed on Christ, when 
those who were afterwards martyrs proved faithless. And this 
indeed was clear to the eyes of our Lord, who conferred upon 
him while unbaptized, though as it were, washed in martyr’s 
blood, so great felicity.” 

From his Discourse Contra Adversarium Legis et Prophetarum 
(ii. 9), we learn that this declaration concerning the Spirit had 
been cited as an argument to prove the contrariety between the 
two Testaments; the Adversary having contended that the Jews 
could not have looked forward to the coming of our Saviour, seeing 
that “ before the advent of the Saviour the Holy and Divine Spirit 
was not upon the earth.” To this Augustin replies by showing 
that the Spirit had previously bestowed the gift of prophecy. 


2712 NOTE H. 


On the difference between the two dispensations of the Spirit, 
Chrysostom (on John vii. 39) is far more satisfactory than Augus- 
tin, as might be expected from the sounder critical principles 
which regulate his interpretation of Scripture, and which became 
prevalent in his School. He had said that the rivers of living 
waters signify “the abundance and freeness of grace. ‘That 
which is ever active He calls living; for the grace of the Spirit, 
when it has entered the understanding and taken up its abode 
there, gushes out more freely than any fountain, incessantly, 
unfailingly ; and to show its inexhaustible plenty and great 
energy, it is called rivers, not one, but innumerable rivers. And 
we may well understand this language, by considering the wisdom 
of Stephen, the eloquence of Peter, and the vehement force of 
Paul; how nothing moved them, nothing withstood them, neither 
the rage of multitudes, nor the opposition of rulers, nor the plots 
of demons, nor deaths daily. But as streams borne on with rush- 
ing sound, so they swept all before them.” He then asks how, 
if the Spirit had never been given, the prophets had prophesied, 
and replies, “ But this grace was diminishing, and departing, and 
forsaking the earth, from that day when it was said: Your house 
is left desolate. And even before that day this want began; for 
there was no longer any prophet among them, neither did grace 
watch over their sacred things. When, therefore, the Holy Spirit 
had been sent, and was henceforth to be poured out more richly, 
and the beginning of this distribution took place after the cruci- 
fixion, not only with abundance, but with greater gifts ;—— for more 
wonderful was the gift than when He said: Ye know not what 
spirit ye are of,and again: for ye have not received the spirit of 
bondage, but ye have received the spirit of adoption: since the 
ancients had the Spirit, but did not communicate it to others, but 
the Apostles filled myriads with it: — when, therefore, they were 
about to receive this grace, but it was not yet given, he says: for 
the Holy Spirit was not yet: Hence when the Lord speaks of this 
grace, the Evangelist ‘says: for the Spirit was not yet, that is, 
given, since Jesus was not yet glorified, calling the cross glory. 
For since we were enemies, had sinned and come short of the 
eift of God, and were haters of God,— but grace was a proof 
of reconciliation, and a gift 1s presented, not to enemies, nor to 
those who are hated, but to friends and those who are well pleas- 
ing,— it was necessary that the sacrifice for us should first be 


NOTE H. Bie 


offered, the enmity in our flesh be destroyed, and we become 
friends of God, and then receive the oift.” 

Theodoret, who quotes this declaration concerning the gifts of 
the Spirit several times, when allegorizing passages of the Old 
Testament where waters are spoken of, shows a strong disposi- 
tion to apply it mainly to the Apostles and their successors, Over-. 
looking that our Lord’s promise is general, to them that believe in 
Him. After the manner of the ancient Church, and indeed of all 
ages of the Church, except the Apostolic and that of the Refor- 
mation, he does not duly bear in mind the spiritual priesthood 
of every Christian. Thus, in interpreting those words in the 
65th Psalm, Thou visitest the earth and waterest it: Thou greatly 
enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of water, — he Says, 
“ The world, formerly unfruitful, has the Master made fertile and 
productive, watering it by divine channels. For who but the 
divine Apostles are the rivers of God full of water? Of these 
Christ the Master said: Whosoever believeth in me, as the Scripture 
saith, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water ; and again: 
He that drinketh of the water which I will give him shall never 
thirst, but the water which I will give him shall be a well of water 
springing up into eternal life. But according to the LXX. the 
grace of the Spirit, which is separated into channels, giving to this 
man the word of wisdom, to that imparting knowledge, to one the 
gift of healing, and to another divers kinds of tongues, and by 
these watering the world, this grace is the river of God.” Again, 
on the 3rd verse of the 93rd Psalm, — The floods have lifted up 
their voice, the floods lift up their waves, — he writes thus: “ He 
calls the holy Apostles, and those who received the message after 
them, rivers; for like rivers they watered men. Thus, indeed, 
the blessed Habakkuk addressed them: the earth shall be cleft 
with rivers, that is, it shall be divided and shall be watered. And 
thus also said the Lord: He that believeth in Me, out of his belly 
shall flow rivers of living water. These, therefore, the rivers, 
lifted up their voices, proclaiming the divine precepts.” Here 
we find the same propensity for allegorizing circumstances and 
details, which may almost be called the predominant element in 
the exegesis of the Fathers, and which is very different from the 
true spiritual and symbolical mode of interpretation; inasmuch 
as the latter fixes upon that which is permanent and pervading, 
and regards the outward Creation as expressing the purposes of 


274 NOTE H. 


the One All-pervading Will, uttering itself harmoniously in all 
its manifestations; while the former attaches itself to that which 
is accidental and external and fleeting, and loses sight of the idea, 
while chasing the butterflies of fancy. The symbolical and spirit- 
ual mode of interpretation may be exemplified by St. John’s 
declaration, that our Lord’s promise of the rivers of living water 
was spoken of the Spirit, which believers in Him were to recewwe. 
Thus the promise, as being wholly spiritual, both with regard to 
its condition and its blessing, is shown to belong to all ages of 
the Church, and to every individual believer, and becomes a 
source of comfort to all: and in this sense it never has failed, 
and never will fail, but is fulfilled at this day in all parts of the 
earth, wherever a true believer in Christ is to be found. In like 
manner even such passages of Scripture, as were spoken prima- 
rily concerning the operations of external nature ;— for instance, 
those cited from the Psalms, — will often admit of a spiritual 
application, in consequence of that harmony and correspondence, 
through which the natural world is in so many things the symbol 
of the spiritual. But to hunt for types of that which is inciden- 
tal and transient is a capricious exercise of the intellect, anda 
habit injurious to the perception of true spiritual realities ; while, 
by restricting the words of Scripture to particular applications, it 
sadly impairs their power: the rivers of living waters shrink into 
dried pools. Now this habit of mind is unfortunately very com- 
mon among the Fathers, as it was among the contemporary rhet- 
oricians and grammarians, who exercise the same kind of trans- 
mutations upon Homer, as the Fathers are apt to exercise upon 
the Bible. Hence, while we owe them a grateful recognition of 
the services which they rendered to the Church, by their exer- 
tions, intellectual and moral, for the settling and upholding of the 
orthodox faith, we should beware of allowing our gratitude and 
reverence to delude us into following the vagaries and meander- 
ings of their fancies. 

JIn the Treatise of Athanasius On the Incarnation of the Word, 
where he is showing that the expressions in Scripture, which speak 
of the exaltation and glorification of Christ, refer to His human 
nature, we read (§ 3): ‘ And when it is said: the Holy Spirit was 
not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified, His flesh is said to be 
not yet glorified. For the Lord of glory is not glorified, but the 
flesh of the Lord of glory, ascending with Him into heaven, re- 


NOTE H. 275 


ceives glory. Whence also the Spirit of adoption was not yet in 
men, because the first fruits taken from us had not yet gone up 
into heaven.” These words do not pretend to be a full explana- 
tion; but they contain the germs of the true one. At least it is 
through the Spirit of adoption that all the other graces of the 
Spirit are poured out, like rivers of living water, on those who 
through faith in Christ are received as the children of God. 

Gregory Nazianzen, in his Oration on the day of Pentecost (8 
x1.),— after speaking of the operation of the Spirit in the Patri- 
archs and the Prophets, “some of whom had visions of God or 
knew [im, while others impressed by the Spirit foresaw the royal 
future and were in company with those yet to be as if they were 
then present,” — says that with Christ’s disciples He was present 
“in a threefold manner, as they were able to bear, and at three 
several times: before Christ was glorified by His passion; after 
He was glorified by His resurrection; and after His ascension or 
restoration to heaven. — First, the healing of diseases and spirits, 
which, evidently, took place not without the Holy Ghost; next, 
the communication after Christ rose from the dead, being plainly 
a yet more divine inspiration; and then the distribution of fiery 
tongues on the day we now commemorate.— But the first was 
indistinct, the second more striking, and that on the Pentecost still 
more perfect, He being present no longer by His power only, but 
so to speak, essentially, as a companion and fellow-citizen.” Thus 
the craving after a sign manifests itself in the exaltation of the 
fiery tongues as the chief of all the manifestations of the Spirit. 

A like exaggeration of the outward gift, with an idle numerical 
allegorizing, is found in Gregory the Great’s Homily, on the 
Octave of the Passover (a1. 36.§ 3). “Let us inquire what that 
Holy Spirit is, which our Lord bestowed once while remaining on 
the earth, and at another time when presiding in heaven. For in 
no other place does the Spirit appear to have been openly given, 
except at one time when it was received by a breath, and after- 
wards when coming from heaven it was proclaimed in various 
tongues. Why then is it first given to the disciples on earth, but 
afterwards sent from heaven, unless: because there are two pre. 
cepts concerning love, viz.: the love of God and the love of our 
neighbor. The Spirit is given on earth that God may be loved. 
As then there is one love and two precepts, so there is one Spirit 
and two gifts. ‘The first by the Lord while on earth, the next 


276 NOTE H. 


from heaven; because in the love of our neighbor is learned in 
what way we ought to arrive at the love of God. And indeed the 
same Holy Spirit had entered the minds of the disciples before to 
produce faith, but still the visible gift was not bestowed until after 
the resurrection. Whence also, it is written: The Spirit was not 
yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” The art of reason- 
ing might be supposed to have become extinct, when the first men 
of the age were found continually indulging in such dreamy non- 
sequiturs. : 

By Thomas Aquinas the stress of the distinction is still laid on 
the visible manifestation of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost. In 
his Summa (Prima Secunda, xliii. 6) he argues the question, 
“ Whether the invisible mission (of the Comforter) extends to all 
who are partakers of grace,” and after maintaining the negative 
on the ground that “the patriarchs of the Old Testament were 
partakers of grace; but to them no invisible mission seems to have 
been granted ; for it is said: The Spirit was not yet given, because 
Jesus was not yet glorified,” he replies, “ But the invisible mission 
was fulfilled to the patriarchs of the Old Testament: Whence 
Augustin says: That after the Son is sent invisibly He is in men 
or with men. Now this was realized in the patriarchs and proph- 
ets. When therefore it is said: The Spirit was not yet given, we 
understand it of that gift by a visible sign which was made on the 
day of Pentecost.” Such logical antitheses will seldom lead to a 
satisfactory result in any thing so complex as the subject matter of 
words i ordinary speech and writing. 

Thus in this instance again, as in so many others, if we desire to 
see the living power of the words of Scripture set forth in their 
spiritual simplicity and depth, we must come down to the age of 
the Reformation. Luther, as he is Wont, goes straight to the heart 
of the truth, in the Exposition of the sixth, seventh, and eighth Chap- 
ters of St. John, which was compiled by Aurifaber out of a course 
of Sermons preached in 1531. Let us hear him interpreting the 
rivers of living water: he cannot confound them with the outward 
oift of tongues. “ Rivers shall flow, water that gives life. Whoso 
comes to Me, I will so fashion him, that he shall not only be cheered 
and refreshed in his own person, so that he may quench his thirst, 
and become free from thirst; but I will make him into a strong 
stone vessel, will give him the Holy Ghost and gifts, so that he 
shall flow out upon others, shall give them to drink, shall comfort 


NOTE H. te 


and strengthen them, and shall help many, as he has been helped 
by Me; as St. Paul says in 2 Cor.i.4. Thus our Lord Christ 
will make another man of him who comes to Him, than Moses 
could make. 

“Under the Papacy we mad saints made one rule after another ; 
and there was no end of our laws: we merely terrified the con- 
science, and made it thirsty: the preachers only increased the 
thirst. It could not be otherwise. When merit-mongers teach, 
they add one thirst to another, and spin one law out of another, so 
that there is no end or stoppage of laws; as we then experienced 
far too much. Every year there was a new doctor; and the sim- 
pletons only tormented the conscience. For instance this was a 
solemn law, that a person was not to touch a corporal or a chalice: 
they devised all manner of mortal sins: a monk durst not go with- 
out his hood. For these teachers could not do otherwise; since 
they wanted to govern the world by laws: hence from one law 
grew many others: for casus sunt infiniti; and out of a law a 
hundred glosses were made. This is the way with the Jurists. 
They are ever changing, patching and mending; et sie multipli- 
cantur leges in infinitum. Just as a snowball, which slips down a 
roof or a high hill, is small when it sets out, but gathers more and 
more snow in rolling, and becomes so big, that, when it falls from 
a roof or a hill, if a child stand in the way, and the snowball hit 
him, he will be killed; so was it under the Papacy with laws and 
human ordinances. First there was St. Benedict’s order; then 
that of the Barefoot Friars; and afterward out of the Barefoot 
Friars spawned seven other orders, and became the servants of 
Moses. When these things begin to make one thirst, it does not 
cease; they cannot quench our thirst. 

“‘ But Christ does the reverse, and does not cease to comfort us, 
and not only gives us to drink for ourselves, but through our 
means quenches that thirst in others which the Law has excited. 
And the more the Gospel is preached, the more richly is men’s 
thirst quenched, and the more do the thirsty relish it. Therefore 
he who believes in Christ, and drinks from Him, can also give to 
others, and cheer and refresh them. Even if all the world were 
standing before him, he can speak such words, that all shall be 
comforted. This is what our Lord means, when He says, He will 
give them to drink, not with a spoonful, or with a funnel anda 
tap; but whole rivers of comfort shall they have; and they shall 

24 


278 NOTE H. 


be full to overflowing with all power and riches for all that thirst. 

Thus a pious pastor can comfort all who are in their sins, so as to 
take away their sins: however great and many they may be, with 
one saying he puffs away all sin: and when death and war are at 
hand, a preacher can strengthen a whole army, so that they shall 
cast away death and not care for it. This is because he can dash 
it away with one word of comfort. With what? with the water 
of life. 

“ Thus does Christ mean that the preaching of His Gospel is 
a river of life wherewith man shall be refreshed. It does not seem 
so; for the matter is simple. You may hear, or read, or preach; 
and I only hear the poor sound of a voice, and see a poor letter in 
a book, and have the thought in my heart. Yet that same word 
which is preached, has such a hidden power, that, in the devil’s 
kingdom, where he rules mightily, it will sweep devils by shoals 
out of the heart, as the Elbe sweeps down chaff. He knows well 

vwhy He calls God’s word a river. For it does great things, and 
many; it rushes along. Thus did St. Peter on the day of Pente- 
cost, when with one sermon, as with a torrent, he swept and bore 
away three thousand souls out of the devil’s kingdom, delivering 
them in one hour, washing them from death and sin and Satan. 
This makes no show; but the word has such a power; the stream 
refreshed them and bore them along. Now they, who come to the 
Gospel and to Christ, shall have this honor, that they shall render 
this excellent service. Fathers and mothers may comfort their 
servants, their children, and neighbors, and teach them not to fear 
or be cast down, and may help them; for out of their body flows 
living water, that shall refresh the dear souls in all their wants and 
sufferings. 

«“ This saying should be noted against the Anabaptists and sec- 
taries, or revilers of the oral word, who maintain that the spirit 
and faith are internal, and therefore that the spiritual word must 
do all, —that, if God does not give His comfort, the outward word 
is nothing, as the Pope also has pretended; and they would cut 
off the bodily voice and the outward word from our ears, saying 
that preaching is nothing but a poor noise in the pulpit, also that 
baptism is a mere sprinkling of water, and that in the Lord’s Sup- 
per there is mere bread and wine. But what says the Lord Christ ? 
He says, He who believes in Me, and comes to Me, and drinks at 
My hand, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. What is 


NOTE H. 279 


here meant by belly, or body? It meansthat the Christian shall 
be able bodily to counsel and help others. How can He do this? 
‘QO! the oral word can do more than you are worthy to see and 
perceive. Where are the sectaries who say, the word can do 
nothing? You hear that it is a river which gives life. The oral 
word is a living word; this they have never experienced; but I 
know it well, and have found it so in distress and temptation. I 
feel that by the word life is given to me, as is said in the Psalm 
(cxix. 50): This is my comfort.in my affliction ; for Thy word has 
quickened me. Aman will help me with a word, so that I feel 
alive. Thus I too may counsel another with Christ’s word, and 
give him to drink, so that he gains courage, and grows sound, nay, 
is converted, if he lies in error. 

“Thus does our Lord Christ say of the oral word, that in a 
Christian brother it shall be living water, so that, if a man believes, 
he is already comforted and strengthened; yet the godless boobies 
would despise it, and say, it is an outward thing. That a sow 
would know. But this word gives life. Note this, that if God’s 
word proceeds out of a believing mouth, the words are living, and 
can save man from death, can forgive sins, can raise to heaven; 
and if you believe them, you are comforted and strengthened ; for 
they are rivers of life. Moreover, what is still more comfortable 
and greater, a true Christian cannot preach wrongly; Christ will 
not let him err: all that he teaches and says must be pure water; 
they are living, comforting words. And he who believes, let him 
be assured that he will preach the articles of faith rightly ; he will 
not preach ill; as is said in another place, He who believes in 
Christ, non dicet anathema Jesum. Thus, if faith in the heart be 
sincere, the words will also be profitable: for faith in the heart 
will not let us preach save what is right and true. 

“Therefore are we to hold the word of God in honor and high 
esteem; for it brings forth much fruit. And though it does not 
this straightway in the rude and ungodly, it does so in the thirsty : 
they who receive it overflow, and are quickened thereby with a 
river. On the other hand he who fails in this article, and does 
not believe in Christ, must not think that he can preach or utter 
one good word. Even if it be clear and shining, it is not this liv- 
ing water. Hence it is of great moment that we should learn to 
know Christ; for then we shall not err: the same doctrine will 
give life and comfort. Other doctrines are mere poison, are no 


280 NOTE H. 


drink, do not quench thirst, but are dirty, stinking, muddy pud- 
dies. Thus God says in the prophet Jeremiah (ii. 13): My peo- 
le have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me, the Fountain 
of living waters, and hewn them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that 
can hold no water. — 

*¢ Now the Jews were accustomed, in the Scriptures, to such 
sayings about rivers of water: but John interprets it, and says, 
He did not speak of natural water, but of the Spirit, which believers 
in Him were to receive. — Christ did not interpret the well or riy- 
ers of water: but this was His meaning. The rivers are the Holy 
Ghost; and they who have received the Gospel and the Holy 
Ghost, can comfort, instruct, warn, yea, benefit the whole world, 
and help to the destruction of eternal death, and to the attainment, 
of eternal life. — 

“And then follows, For the Holy Ghost was not yet. At the 
time when Christ preached, He promised the Holy Ghost; and 
therefore the Holy Ghost was not yet. Not that He did not yet 
exist essentially in heaven; but He was not yet in His manifesta- 
tion and working. For this is the peculiar work and office of the 
Holy Ghost, to manifest and glorify Christ, to preach and bear 
witness of Him. This office did not yet exist, the office of glori- 
fying Christ; that is, the preaching of the forgiveness of sins, and 
how men shall be delivered from death, and have comfort and joy 
in Christ, and how this belongs to us, — was at that time unheard 
and unuttered. That salvation, blessedness, righteousness, joy, 
and life were to be given to us by the man Christ, was not known. 
THe promises it here, and proclaims that in Him men are to believe, 
and that whoso believes shall have what He promises. One must 
not fall into such senseless thoughts as to suppose that the Holy 
Ghost was only created after Christ’s resurrection from the dead : 
what is written here is, The Holy Ghost was not yet, that is, was 
not in His office. It was still the time of the old sermon, and of 
the Law, whereof we continually say and preach, that it is neces- 
sary to distinguish between the sermon of the Gospel and that of 
the Law. For when the Law is preached, it is a sermon that 
brings out sin: it is a thirsty and sorry sermon: it makes hungry 
souls, terrified, dismal, sorry hearts and consciences, which sigh 
after God’s grace. This sermon continues until Christ is raised 
from the dead and glorified; and under it is thirst, poverty, want, 
and neither counsel nor help. For then people say, Z’how hast 


NOTE H. 281 


done this; thou hast left this undone ; therefore thou art given up 
to death, and under the wrath of God: as we ourselves have expe- 
rienced, who concerned ourselves thereabout.— Such was the 
case in our Lord’s days. Ifa sermon was good, it ran thus: He 
who wishes to be pious and blessed must keep the Law. But how 
one could get to keep the Law, or how those could be saved, who 
had not kept it, and could not boast of any good works, no one 
knew: for the Holy Ghost was not yet come; Christ was not yet 
glorified.” 

Well indeed did Luther know the power of God’s word, the 
power which goes along with it when it is truly the sword of the 
Spirit. He knew it, as he here tells us, from what he himself had 
felt: in fact he could not have spoken of it as he does, except 
from personal experience. He knew it also from the effect which 
he had often seen it produce, when it issued with the power of 
the Spirit from his own lips. So far too as any written words can 
yield us a conception of that power, and realize the des¢ription he 
gives of it, his do. As he himself has somewhere said of St. Paul’s 
words, they are not dead words, but living creatures, and have 
hands and feet. It no longer surprises us that the man who wrote 
and spoke thus, although no more than a poor monk, should have 
been mightier than the Pope, and the Emperor to boot, with all 
their hosts, ecclesiastical and civil,_—that the rivers of living 
water which issued from him, should have swept half Germany, 
and in course of time the chief part of northern Europe, out of 
the kingdom of darkness into the region of evangelical light. No 
day in spring, when life seems bursting from every bud, and gush- 
ing from every pore, is fuller of life than his pages; and if they 
are not without the strong breezes of spring, these too have to 
bear their part in the work of purification. The foregoing extract 
is taken, as has been stated, from a course of homilies on three 
chapters of St. John, which was published by Aurifaber as a run- 
ning Commentary. Most of his exegetical works had a similar 
origin; the marks of which are apparent in their vivid practical 
applications to the circumstances and exigencies of the church in 
his age. 


Calvin’s Commentaries on the other hand, although they too 


are almost entirely doctrinal and practical, taking little note of 

critical and philological questions, keep much closer to the text, 

and make it their one business to bring out the meaning of the 
24 * 


a 


282 NOTE H. 


words of Scripture with fulness and precision. This they do with 
the excellence of a master richly endowed with the word of wis- 
dom and with the word of knowledge: and from the exemplary 
union of a severe, masculine understanding with a profound im- 
sight into the spiritual depths of the Scriptures, they are especially 
calculated to be useful in counteracting the erroneous tendencies 
of an age, when we seem about to be inundated with all that is 
most fantastical and irrational in the exegetical mysticism of the 
Fathers, and are bid to see divine power in allegorical cobwebs, 
and heavenly life in artificial flowers. I do not mean to imply an 
adoption or approval of all Calvin’s views, whether on doctrinal or 
other questions. But we may happily owe much gratitude and 
love, and the deepest intellectual obligations, to those whom at the 
same time we may deem to be mistaken on certain points. Per- 
haps it may be better for our frail hyman affections, that there is 
no one who is not so: else I know not how we should be able to 
repress that proneness to idolatry, which led men to the worship 
of heroes in the Heathen world, and to the worship of saints in the 
corrupt ages of the Christian. 

In his exposition of the passage we have been considering in the 
seventh Chapter of St. John, Calvin of course takes the right, spir- 
itual view. He says of the promise that rivers of living water shall 
flow out of him who believes in Christ, “‘ Christ here teaches the 
abundant fulness to be found in Him which will refresh us to 
satiety. It is indeed a rather strong metaphor when rivers of 
living water are said to flow out of the heart of believers: never- 
theless the sense is by no means doubtful, namely, that no spiritual 
blessing shall ever be wanting to them that believe. He calls that 
living water, the spring of which does never dry up, nor the con- 
tinuous flow cease. ivers in the plural number I understand to 
express the multiplied graces of the Spirit which are necessary to 
the spiritual life of the soul. In short, here is promised to us the 
perpetuity of the gifts of the Spirit, as well as their abundance. 
Some understand waters to flow from the heart of believers, when 
he who receives of the Spirit imparts a portion to his brethren, 
that there should be a mutual communication between us. Still 
the sense seems to me more simple that whosoever believeth in — 
Christ shall have a fountain of life, as it were, bubbling up within 
him; in accordance with which Christ said above: Whosoever 
shall drink of this water shall never thirst. For while ordinary 


NOTE H. 283 


drink only quenches thirst for a short time, Christ declares that 
we may inhale the Spirit by faith, which Spirit may be a well 
of water springing up unto everlasting life. Nor yet does it 
teach that believers in Christ are so filled on the first day that 
they will not hunger or thirst afterwards: but rather that the 
enjoyment of Christ kindles a new desire for it. But the sense is, 
that the Spirit will be in believers equivalent to a living and ever- 
flowing fountain; as Paul also testifies, (Rom. viii. 10,) that He is 
life in us, though at the same time, in the remains of sin, we bear 
about the elements of death. And in truth, when any one is, 
according to the measure of his faith, made partaker of the gifts 
of the Spirit, the complete fulness of them cannot appear in this 
life. But so do believers from time to time in the progress of 
their faith thirst after fresh impartations of the Spirit, that the 
first beginnings with which they are imbued are sufficient for the 
preservation of their spiritual life. But we are also admonished 
by this how small may be the measure of our faith when the Spirit 
barely distils upon us, drop by drop, that which might flow like a 
river, if we would give the right place to Christ; that is, should 
our faith render us capable of receiving Him.” 

And then he adds, on the words, The Spirit was not yet given: 
* We know the Spirit to be eternal: but the Evangelist denies 
that that grace of the Spirit, which was poured out upon men 
after Christ’s resurrection, existed openly, so long as Christ ap- 
peared in the world in the form of an humble servant. And 
indeed he speaks comparatively, as if he were contrasting the 
New Testament with the Old. God promised His Spirit to 
believers as if He had never given it to the patriarchs. Now 
then the disciples had certainly received the first fruits of the 
Spirit. For whence could faith come except by the Spirit ? 
The Evangelist then does not strictly deny that the grace of the 
Spirit had been exhibited to the saints before the death of Christ, 
but only that it had not been so prominent and tonspicuous 
then as it was to be afterwards. For this is the peculiar honor of 
Christ’s kingdom, that He governs the church by His Spirit. 
Now He entered into the rightful, and as it were the sole, posses- 
sion of His kingdom at the time when He was raised to the right 
hand of the Father. It is not strange, therefore, that He should 
defer the full exhibition of the Spirit until this time. Still one 
question remains: whether He here means the visible graces of 


284 NOTE H. 


the Spirit, or regeneration, which is the fruit of adoption. I 
reply, in these visible gifts as in a mirror appeared that Spirit 
which had been promised at the advent of Christ; nevertheless 
He here treats especially of that work of the Spirit by which we 
are born anew in Christ and are made new creatures. Since 
then, Christ now sits at the right hand of the Father, glorified 
and clothed with imperial majesty, if we lie upon earth needy and 
faint, and almost destitute of spiritual blessings, it must be imputed 
to the dulness and poverty of our faith.” 

It is surprising that, after this excellent exposition of our pas- 
sage, Beza should have departed from his master’s interpretation, 
and should have said in his note, “ What He calls the Holy Spirit 
is explained in the same verse, viz.: those visible gifts which in the 
beginning of the infant church were in vigorous exercise, as Joel 
had predicted, ch. 2; and the name of the Holy Spirit is used by 
metonymy for the effects of it, as the Apostle teaches, 1 Cor. xii. 
passim, and Acts xix. 2, sq., and in many other places.” It is 
true, if the 39th verse stood alone, one might then be readier to 
suppose that the Spirit to be received by believers in Christ after 
His glorification was intended by the Evangelist to refer to the 
miraculous powers, which we read of as having been bestowed on 
the day of Rentecost; although even then the expression, ov éuth- 
Loy LouBureiy ob MLOTEVOYTES tig HUTOY, would seem to imply that 
the gift of the Spirit was to be granted to all believers in Christ, 
and was to be coextensive with the faith in him; which cannot be 
predicated of the miraculous powers. But when we take this 
verse in conjunction with our Lord’s declaration, which it is intro- 
duced to explain, —If any man thirst, let him come to Me, and 
drink: he that believeth in Me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of 
living water: —these words, it seems to me, prove convincingly 
that the gift of the Spirit must be something inward, manifesting 
itself indeed outwardly, but dwelling in the heart and soul. Surely 
the rivers of living water flowing out of the heart answer far better 
to the fruits of the Spirit enumerated in that beautiful verse of the 
Epistle to the Galatians, than to the gift of tongues, or the power 
of working miracles. 

Cartwright on the other hand, in his Harmonia Evangelica,— 
an able and pious book, though disfigured and hurt by its scholastic 
form and technical subdivisions, — explains the “ rivers and foun- 
tains of the Holy Spirit,’ to be “a fountain of remission of sins, ete., 


NOTE H. 285 


a fountain of righteousness, a fountain of wisdom, a fountain of 
holiness, etc., in fine, the greatest abundance of every blessing in 
life, so that it may not be necessary to seek any thing from any 
other source to make up what is not supplied by this. Moreover, 
we must observe the distinction between the Law and the Gospel, 
not in the essence of the Spirit, but in the more scanty and the | 
more abundant measure of its bestowment; formerly in drops, but 
now in streams; once by sparks, now by coals; formerly as the 
stars, now like the sun. Our shekel and cubit and span are the 
homer and ephah of the Sanctuary; 7. e. twice as much as they 
were formerly.” By an unhappy expression indeed, into which 
his technical phraseology leads him, he more than once calls these 
gifts of the Spirit “effectum fidei;” which would seem to imply 
gross error concerning the nature and power of Faith, as though 
it caused and produced, what it merely receives and appropriates. 
Such errors have often prevailed, and have prepared the way 
ultimately for the denial of all substantial reality in the objects of 
Faith, converting religion, according to one view, into a product 
of human feeling, — according to another, into a product of human 
reason. This however is not Cartwright’s view: for he says, “ As 
in Christ alone the water of life is held confined, so by faith alone, 
as by a bucket or pail, is it drawn from thence. There is no vessel 
by which this water can be taken except faith.” These words 
rightly express the office of Faith; which receives the seeds of 
grace from the Spirit, and then brings forth the graces of a Chris- 
tian life, rich in the fruit of good works. But the notion that 
Faith itself, as a mere human faculty, is the creative principle of 
all good, is so fascinating from its tendency to magnify man’s 
heart and mind, that we need to keep watch against every approach 
to it. 

Hammond on this point is sensible, though he is never profound. 
Indeed he professes “ purposely to abstain from all doctrinal con- 
clusions and deductions and definitions.” In his Paraphrase he 
thus renders our Lord’s words in the 38th verse: “ He that be- 
lieveth in Me shall be like a spring of water, whose water by con- 
duits shall from within break forth in great abundance, that is, 
being filled with the Spirit of Christ, shall not be able to contain, 
but break forth into all Christian actions, and preach the Gospel 
with all zeal.” Again, in his note on’ Acts i. 5, he says that, “ be- 
side the special uses of the Holy Ghost’s descending on the Apos- 


286 NOTE H. 


tles, one common, constant use there was also, which belonged to 
all Christians, not only Apostles (as appears by John vii. 39, where 
Christ mentions the Spirit, which not only the Apostles, but 
believers in common, i. e. all Christians, should receive after His 
Ascension), the giving them strength to perform what God now 
required of them.” Only in conformity with the meagre theology, 
with which so great a body of our divines in his days, and from 
thence downward, were infected, he almost seems to limit the gift 
of the Holy Ghost to believers to that which they receive at their 
Baptism; although his views of the baptismal gift are of a much 
soberer Cast than the air-blown phantoms which have recently daz- 
zled and bewildered so many. Both views however appear to 
have this error in common, that they both of them concentrate and 
condense the operation of the Spirit into a single magical moment, 
an electric transmuting flash, and comparatively disregard His per- 
petual abiding influence and operation, whereby He prompts and 
helps us in all our struggles against the principle of evil within us 
and without. Again, in the Note on Acts ii. 38, Hammond asks 
concerning the gifts of the Holy Ghost promised by St. Peter to 
the new converts, ‘what gifts these were, whether inward or out- 
ward? For both these are promised indefinitely to believers. To 
the inward, that speech of Christ seems to pertain, He that believeth 
on Me, out of His belly shall flow rivers of living waters ; where, the 
belly denoting the heart or inward part of the man, the flowing of 
the living water from thence denotes some effect of the Holy Spir- 
it’s descent upon and in the hearts of believers. — What this inward 
gift is, appears in several places, wisdom (Acts vi. 3), knowledge 
(1 Cor. xii. 8); and so likewise the assistances of God’s Spirit, 
joined with His word, enabling humble, sincere Christians for the 
duties of Christian life, which are required of them. — Now for the 
resolving of the query, what sort of gift is here meant, the surest 
way will be, not so to define of either as to exclude the other; 
not that both, and every branch of each should be poured on each 
believer, but that they all should be scattered among them, the 
inward by baptism or confirmation signed on all, and the outward 
bestowed on some of them.” 

In Bull’s Harmonia Apostolica there is a chapter, the 11th of 
the second Dissertation, treating on the want of the Spirit under 
the Law, and on the grant of the Spirit under what he calls the 
Evangelical Covenant with Abraham. On our immediate question 


NOTE H. 287 


however he scarcely touches, taking no notice of our Lord’s 
declaration that the coming of the Comforter must be subsequent 
to His Ascension, and merely citing the passage we have been 
considering (John vil. 38), without any reference to its contents. 
As to the general worth of Bull’s Treatise, which has been a good 
deal overpraised, I shall have occasion to speak, God willing, in 
the notes on the Victory of Faith. In the chapter on the gift of 
the Spirit, his conclusions are not very satisfactorily established. 
He tries to make out that the Covenant spoken of in the 29th and 
30th chapters of Deuteronomy is wholly distinct from that on 
Sinai, and identical with the Gospel: but in so doing he passes 
over the marks which prove it to be essentially and totally differ- 
ent from the Gospel, namely, that it is a Covenant, that the bless- 
ings are promised on certain conditions, so as to make it a Cov- 
enant of works, and that the blessings themselves are mainly tem- 
poral. Wherefore Davison has well observed in his fourth Dis- 
course on Prophecy, when speaking of this latter portion of the 
book of Deuteronomy, “ that there is a perfect conformity between 
the Law and the Prophecy of Moses. The Law was founded on 
explicit temporal sanctions: his prophecy dilates explicitly upon 
the temporal subject, the scheme of earthly blessings and earthly 
evils. ‘The prophecy indeed is no more than a full and graphic 
exemplification of the actual sanctions of the Law.” 

Again Bull applies the great prophecy of Jeremiah concerning 
the outpouring of the Spirit to what he here terms “ the Moabite 
Covenant ;” whereas that prophecy, according to the very nature 
of prophecy, speaks of that which was to be in times to come, not 
of a Covenant which had been made long before. In fact it proves 
the very reverse of that which it is adduced to prove ; inasmuch 
as it announces a future dispensation, which was to be wholly 
unlike the past, in this respect more especially, that it was to be a 
dispensation of the Spirit. 

A further defect in this chapter, and one connected with the 
main argument of Bull’s whole treatise, is the stress laid on the 
word foedus, or Covenant, by which dcadnxn, when applied to 
the Gospel, has been so inappropriately and unfortunately ren- 
dered. For every scholar knows that d:a%yxq is a word of 
much more extensive signification than covenant,— which in 
Greek would rather be expressed by ovy 04%, —and that it 
corresponds more nearly to disposition or dispensation, embracing 


288 NOTE H. 


testamentary dispositions, and all others, without implying any 
kind of reciprocity or condition, which is necessarily involved in 
a covenant. Hence St. Paul, in his Epistle to the Galatians, 
strongly urges the difference between the Covenant of the Law, 
— The man that doeth these things shall live in them,—and the 
free dispensation of Grace, by promise, & énayysltas, without a 
mediator, as coming solely from One, that is, God. Yet in this 
very passage, where St. Paul is expressly denying that the evan- 
gelical dispensation is a covenant, OvaDyjxn is twice rendered a 
covenant, in vv. 15,17. Nor is this a mere verbal error. Long 
trains of reasoning have been grounded upon it; and it has sadly 
obscured the perception of the freedom of the Gospel. 

With regard to our present question Bull says, that the Spirit 
was given under the Law, but not through the Law, and that 
under the Law He was given “in a sparing and restricted man- 
ner, under the Gospel freely and bountifully.” But when he 
comes to the manner of this abundant outpouring, he too dwells 
chiefly on the miraculous operations of the Spirit, even saying 
that St. Paul makes use of this argument, “ argumento plane apo- 
dictico,” * to establish his doctrine of Justification by Faith, with- 
out the works of the Mosaic Law. By a strange mistake in the 
new Oxford Translation, Bull’s words, “‘ Apostolum alicubi doc- 
trinam suam —stabilitum ire, ete.” are rendered, “The Apostle 
always endeavors to establish his doctrine of Justification by 
Faith, — by those conspicuous and miraculous gifts of the Spirit, 
which ever followed faith in the Gospel” + (p. 140). Any thing 


* An argument plainly demonstrative.” 

{ If aheays in this passage is meant to represent alicubé, the blunder is 
so gross that one is tempted to suppose the Translator must have had some 
other word in the text before him. But the fact, and the context, — in 
which only one passage of St. Paul is adduced,—seem to preclude such 
a supposition; and if [may judge from the few sentences in this one chap- 
ter, in which I have compared the translation with the original, no marks 
of ignorance in it need surprise us. For instance, where Bull says that 
the Spirit was given under the Law, but not through the Law, “ quippe 
hee gratia mutuo erat accepta ac sumpta de gratia Evangelica,” that is, 
‘inasmuch as this grace was borrowed and taken (by a sort of anticipa- 
tion) from the grace of the Gospel,’’ the translation gives, “since this grace 
was mutually given and received as derived from the grace of the Gospel”? 
(p. 188); making utter nonsense of the passage;—for how can divine 
grace be mutually given and received? we cannot give it to God; nor can 


NOTE H. 289 


so utterly contrary to the fact Bull could not say: he did not 
write semper, always, but alicubi, somewhere: and he refers to a 
single instance, Gal. iii. 2: which, however, no way bears him out. 
For St. Paul there is not using an argument to prove the truth of 
his doctrine, but appealing to a fact in order to stir his readers. 
Nor is there any ground for supposing that the gift of the Spirit to 

the Galatians had conveyed any miraculous power to them: but it 
conveyed what was far more precious, a power which, as he says 
two verses after, enabled them to suffer many things for the sake 
of the Gospel, and which made them receive him as an angel of 
God, and filled them with dlessedness. It is a curious instance 
how a prepossession will blind a man, that a candid, laborious, 
thoughtful writer like Bishop Bull, though thoroughly familiar with 
the Epistles to the Galatians and to the Romans, should have per- 
suaded himself that the miraculous outward gifts of the Spirit are 
the clenching argument, “argumentum plane apodicticum,’ by 


God receive it from us: —and showing that the Translator is ignorant of 
the idiomatic use of mutwo with accipere and dare. A few lines further on, 
where Bull states that, under the Old Covenant, God gave the grace of His 
Spirit “parce admodum et restricte,” the Translator says that He gave it 
“in small and moderate portions ;’’ where it is plain that he did not know 
the meaning of so common a word as admodum, but fancied it was some- 
how equivalent to moderate. Again, where Bull says that, though there is 
no promise of the Holy Spirit in the Law, we often read of the Holy Spirit, 
as being promised and obtained, “in Hagiographis et Scriptis propheticis, 
quae nomine Legis et Veteris Testamenti laxius sumpto non raro veniunt,”? 
the Translator renders these words thus: “for in the Holy Scriptures which 
go under the general name of the Old Testament, etc.’ That is to say, not 
knowing how the name & yu 0 vgugor was applied to designate those books 
of the Old Testament, which were not comprehended under the name of the 
Law and the Prophets, he fancied in Hagiographis meant in the Holy Scrip- 
tures ; and was not even startled out of this fancy by seeing his author 
mention the Scripta prophetica along with them, as distinct from them, but 
quietly omitted these words; and then, being puzzled to find out the gist 
of the next clause, he resolved to leave out half the words, and cut it down 
to quae nomine Veteris Testamenti veniunt, rendering it utterly unmeaning. 
These blunders picked out of about a dozen sentences, in which I have 
been led to examine the translation, may be attributable to the former 
Translator; but the Editor, who professes to have “revised it very care- 
fully,’ ought to have corrected them. Else, if those sentences are any 
sample of the work, it would have been better to leave Bishop Bull in 
his old Latin dress, where his words have a meaning, and well express what: 
he intended. 
25 


290 NOTE H. 


which St Paul demonstrates the truth of his doctrine concerning 
Justification by Faith. To so few is it given to see any thing, ex- 
cept what they are looking for. Nevertheless in this very chapter 
Bull recognizes the moral working of the Spirit as the great bless- 
ing which He confers upon mankind: “ For without the divine 
and efficient power of the Holy Spirit, it could not happen at all 
that any one should be purged from his vices, or relieved from the 
reigning power and tyranny of sin, nor yet that he should be 
excited with alacrity and perseverance to that eminent holiness, to 
those truly heroic deeds which correspond in some measure to so 
great areward as the gift of eternal life.” * He further recognizes 
that, in this very respect, although some persons under the Law 
had been favored with high gifts of the Spirit, yet “ to those few 
who have gone forth under the Law, how many are there under the 
Gospel who are equal, yea, even superior, in the gifts of the Spirit 
and in the admirable holiness of life.” Indeed, if such supernat- 
ural powers, as that of working miracles, and that of prophecy, 
were the highest gifts of the Spirit, we should be forced to confess 
that He was given far more abundantly to the Jewish Church, 
than He ever has been to the Christian since the age of the 
Apostles: and this of itself would be argumentum plane apodieti- 
cum, though only cumulative over and above many others, to 
prove that the rivers of living water promised by our Lord to 
faith are the inward gifts of the Spirit, not the outward. 

Many divines of this age were indeed led by their dislike of the 
Puritans and the Sectaries to look with jealousy and disfavor on 
all assertions of spiritual influences. This however was not the 
case With Bull, although his writings are a good deal tinged with the 


* The latter half of this sentence also is very poorly rendered in the Ox- 
ford Translation: ‘‘ Without the — power — of the Spirit, no man can be 
freed from his lusts, — far less be excited with any constant cheerfulness to 
those truly heroic actions which are tn some degree suitable to so great a re- 
ward as eternal life.’ Here the words ad egregiam ulam sanctitatem are 
entirely omitted, though they are requisite, both as denoting the great 
work of the Spirit, and because without them it becomes ambiguous what 
the opera vere heroica are meant to be. Nor is alacri constantique animo a 
hendyadys, corresponding to ‘‘ constant cheerfulness:’’? each of the two 
words is important; and they would be better rendered “‘ with alacrity and 
perseverance.’’ Alas, it would seem as though the spirit which led schol- 
ars to strive after truth and accuracy even in the minutest things, alacri 
constantique animo, were almost extinct. 


NOTE H. 291 


Arminianism, which in his days had become the prevalent doc- 
trine in our Church. In his third Discourse he gives a clear and 
judicious account of the workings of the Spirit: and these Dis- 
courses, which were published along with his Sermons after his 
death, must be taken to express the opinions which he held in the 
latter part of his life, when his wisdom was the maturest, and the 
heats of controversy were allayed. 

Very different from the tenor of. this Discourse is South’s Ser- 
mon on the Comforter (Vol. vi. Serm. xxix), in which this hard 
logician and unsparing polemic will hardly admit any direct ope- 
ration of the Spirit, since the miraculous ones in the days of the 
Apostles; except indeed the restoration of Charles the Second. 
Of this he says, that “the Holy Ghost must be acknowledged the 
cause of this great transaction;” and that he “knows no argu- 
ment from metaphysics or natural philosophy, that to his reason 
proves the existence of a Deity more fully, than the consideration 
of this prodigious revolution.” An age of weakness and darkness 
was coming over our Church, when one of her ablest teachers 
could speak thus concerning the operation of the Comforter. 

Searcely less strange is it to find Stillingfleet preaching a Ser- 
mon, the 9th in his first Volume, on this very verse of St. John, — 
But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe in Him 
should receive; for the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that 
Jesus was not yet glorified ;—and interpreting these words as 
referring to “the effusion of the Spirit under the times of the Gos- 
pel; by which (he says) we mean those extraordinary gifts and 
abilities, which the Apostles had after the Holy Ghost is said to 
descend upon them. — The two most remarkable, which do com- 
prehend under them most of the rest, are the power of working 
miracles, whether in healing diseases, or any other way, and the 
gift of tongues, either in speaking or interpreting: they who will 
acknowledge that the Apostles had these, will not have reason 
. to question any of the rest.” Hereby, he argues, according to 
prophecy, the Spirit was poured out upon all flesh. “ These rivers 
of waters —scon overflowed the Christian Church in other parts 
of the world. The sound of that rushing mighty wind was soon 
heard in the most distant places; and the fiery tongues inflamed 
the hearts of many who never saw them. These gifts being 
propagated into other Churches, many other tongues were kindled 
from them, as we see how much this gift of tongues obtained in 


292 NOTE H. 


the Church of Corinth: and so in the History of the Acts of the 
Apostles we find after this day how the Holy Ghost fell upon 
them that believed, and what mighty signs and wonders were 
done by them.” He then broaches a notion, which has been 
wrought out elaborately by Warburton, and others since. After 
quoting Isaiah xliv. 3. and xli. 18, he says, “ These are some of 
the lofty expressions whereby the courtly Prophet,’—he was 
preaching at Whitehall,—“sets forth the great promise of the 
Spirit; none better befitting the mighty advantages the Church 
of God hath ever since enjoyed by the pouring out of the Spirit. 
For the fountain was opened in the Apostles; but the streams of 
those rivers of living water have run down to our age, — pre- 
served pure and unmixed in that sacred doctrine contained in the 
Holy Scripture.” Yet the rivers of living water, of which our 
Lord speaks, are not those which are to run down to believers; 
they are to spring out of them, out of the heart of every believer. 
Stillingfleet does not deny the inward working of the Spirit of 
sanctification: nay, a few words occur here and there, implying a 
sort of recognition of it. Indeed no honest man could be a minis- 
ter of our Church, and use our Liturgy, who was conscious that 
he did not believe in the continual working of the Holy Ghost, 
not merely through the inspired Scriptures, but immediately, both 
in the sacraments, and in governing and sanctifying the whole 
body of the Church, in comforting and exalting believers, in re- 
newing them daily, and in enabling them to do such things as 
shall please God. He who disbelieved these propositions, and 
yet officiated in our church-services, would be lying to God. To 
many hearts however such words do not come home with any ® 
living force. ‘They have no deep feeling of the want implied in 
them, no conception of the only manner in which that want can 
be relieved: and one way in which this manifests itself, is, that, 
when such persons have to preach on Whitsunday, their whole 
sermon will be on the miraculous works of the Spirit, which, per- 
taining to long-past ages, are merely matters of historical belief. 
How far this may have been the case with Stillingfleet, it would 
‘be presumption to pronounce, unless upon a careful examination 
of the wide circle of his writings: but it is somewhat remarkable 
that two other Whitsunday Sermons of his, —on St. Paul’s decla- 
ration (1 Cor. ii. 4) that his preaching had not been with enticing 
words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of 


NOTE H. 993 


power, —are little else than an expansion of a part of the argu- 
ment in the one before referred to, their object being to prove 
that “the demonstration of the Spirit and of power, or the wonder- 
ful gifts of the Holy Ghost, (that is, the gift of tongues and the 
power of miracles,) showed that the Gospel came from God.” 
Even these few words of Calvin should have taught him to inter- 
pret St. Paul’s expression better: “many restrict this to miracles ; 
but I take it in a broader sense, viz.: for the hand of God exert- 
ing itself powerfully in every way by the Apostle;” namely, by 
the various workings of the Spirit spoken of in the twelfth and 
fourteenth chapters of the same Epistle, and among the rest by 
the spiritual conviction described in xiv. 24, 25. 

In many of our divines, both of this age, as has been observed 
already, and subsequently, the reluctance to recognize spiritual 
influences was aggravated by their repugnance to the parties that 
made the chief pretensions thereto. This however was not the 
‘case with Stillingfleet, whose disposition toward the Puritans was 
conciliatory. His narrow views concerning the operations of the 
Spirit are the result of that Arminian scheme of doctrine, which 
had gained much ground in our Church prior to the Civil Wars, 
and which, after the expulsion of the bulk of its opponents by the 
Act of Uniformity, became almost exclusively predominant. For, 
since every truth has a contiguous error, men have perpetually 
overrun the boundary between them, from their fondness both for 
exalting their own convictions, and for depreciating those of their 
opponents: and thus, while Calvinism has been too prone to lapse 
into Antinomian and Manichean exaggerations, Arminianism has 
always had a Pelagian tendency, and been apt to reduce the work 
of the Spirit to a minimum, to a single initiative act, — be it with 
reference to individuals, at their baptism, or, in their ministerial 
capacity, at their ordination, — or, with reference to the whole 
Church, in the miracles wrought at its foundation. This is analo- 
gous to the mechanical systems of philosophy, which are unwilling 
to admit any divine agency in the physical universe, except at the 
Creation. Stillingfleet however belonged to the age of our great 
divines, and stood in the foremost rank of them: and among those 
immediately around him were several men, who, while they kept 
aloof from Calvinism, wrote with full acknowledgment of our 

25 * 


294 NOTE H. 


continual need of divine grace, and of the sanctifying work of the 
Spirit. 

Pearson, for instance, does so in the latter part of his treatise on 
the eighth Article of the Creed. So does Barrow, with his charac- 
teristic power and exhaustive fulness of thought and language, in 
his Lxposition of the Creed (which part recurs in the same words 


in his 34th Sermon on the Creed), and in his admirable Whitsun- 


day Sermon, Of the Gift of the Holy Ghost. In the Sermon on 
the Creed indeed he seems to restrict the promise in the 7th 
Chapter of St. John to the miraculous gifts; but at the end of his 
Whitsunday Sermon he applies it as a promise “to impart this 
living stream to every one that thirsteth after it.” The Whitsun- 
day Sermon is a solid ingot of gold, too massy to be transferred to 
this Note. Therefore, recommending the reader to seck it in its 
place, I will quote a passage from the Exposition of the Creed, 


which well sets forth what the gift of the Holy Ghost, as the pecu- 


liar blessing of the Christian dispensation, was, and how it was 
indeed expedient that Christ should go away, to the end that the 
Comforter should come. “ We are naturally void of those good 
dispositions of understanding, of will, of affection, which are ne- 
cessary to make us anywise acceptable to God, fit to serve and 
please Him, capable of any favor from Him, of any true happiness 
in ourselves: our minds, I say, are blind and stupid, ignorant and 
prone to error, especially in things supernatural, — our wills stub- 
born and froward, vain and unstable, inclining to evil, and averse 
from what is most truly good, our affections very irregular and 
unsettled ;— to remove which bad dispositions, inconsistent with 
God’s friendship and favor,—and to beget those contrary to 
them, the knowledge and belief of divine truth, a love of and wil- 
ling compliance with goodness, a well-composed, orderly, and 
steady frame of spirit, — God in mercy hath appointed the Holy 
Spirit; who, first opening our hearts, so as to let in and appre- 
hend the light of divine truth propounded to us, then by repre- 
sentation of proper arguments persuading us to embrace it, begets 
divine knowledge and faith in our minds (which is the work of 
illumination and instruction, the first part of His office), then by 
continual impressions bends our inclinations and mollifies our 
hearts and subdues our affections to a willing compliance with, a 
cheerful complacence in that which is good and pleasing to God; 


<< 7. i) 


NOTE H. 295 


so begetting all pious and virtuous inclinations in us, reverence to 
God, charity to men, sobriety and purity and the rest of those 
amiable and heavenly virtues (which is the work of sanctification, 
another great part of His office): both which together (llumina- 
tion of our mind, sanctification of our will and affections), do con- 
stitute that work, which is styled the Regeneration, Renovation, 
Vivification, New-creation, Resurrection of a man, putting off the 
old, putting on the new man; the faculties of our souls being so 
much changed, and we made, as it were, other men thereby, able 
and apt to do that, to which before we were altogether indisposed 
and unfit. Neither only doth He alter and constitute our disposi- 
tions, but He directs and governs our actions, leading and moving 
us in the ways of obedience to God’s will and law. As we live by 
Him (have a new spiritual life implanted in us), so we walk by 
Him, by His continual guidance and assistance. He reclaims us 
from sin and error, supports and strengthens us in temptation, ad- 
vises, excites, encourages us to works of virtue and piety ; particu- 
larly He guides and quickens us in devotion, showing us what we 
should ask, raising in us holy desires and comfortable hopes there- 
of, disposing us to approach God with fit dispositions of love and 
reverence and humble confidence. It is also a notable part of the 
Holy Spirit’s office to comfort and sustain us, as in all our religious 
practice, so particularly in our doubts, difficulties, distresses, and 
afflictions, to beget joy, peace, and satisfaction in us, in all our 
doings and all our sufferings; whence He has the title of Com- 
forter. It is also a great part thereof to assure us of God’s love 
and favor, that we are His children, and to confirm us in the hopes 
of our everlasting inheritance. We, feeling ourselves to live by 
Him, to love God and goodness, to desire and delight in pleasing 
God, are thereby raised to hope God loves and favors us, and that 
He, having by so authentic a seal ratified His word and promise, 
having already bestowed so sure a pledge, so precious an earnest, 
so plentiful first-fruits, will not fail to make good the remainder 
designed and promised us of everlasting joy and bliss. Lastly, the 
Holy Ghost doth intercede for us with God, is our Advocate and 
Assistant in presenting our supplications, and procuring our good: 
He cries in us, He pleads for us to God; whence He is peculiarly 
called Iaguxdytos, that is, One who is called in by His good word 
or countenance to aid him whose cause is to be examined, or 
whose petition is to be considered. To which things I may add, 


296 NOTE H. 


that the Holy Ghost is designed to be as it were the soul, which 
informs, enlivens, and actuates the whole body of the Church, 
connecting and containing together the members thereof in spir- 
itual union, life, and motion, especially quickening and moving 
the principal members, the governors and pastors thereof, consti- 
tuting them in their function, qualifying them for the discharge 
thereof, guiding and assisting them therein.” 

In Beveridge we already see the marks of an intellectually 
feebler age: but he was a learned and pious man; and having 
those graces in himself, which none can have except through the 
Spirit of God, he knew how great our need of the Spirit is, how 
great the blessings which believers receive from Him. Indeed 
his views of doctrine in early life were a good deal influenced by 
the Calvinism, which at that time, under the Protectorate, was on 
the ascendant: henee his Sermons have much more spiritual life 
in them, than those of most of his contemporaries. On the sane- 
tifying work of the Spirit he often speaks in them; for instance 
in the 12th, on the Sacerdotal Benediction in the name of the Trin- 
uy, and in the 28rd, on a Spiritual Life the Chdracteristic of a 
Christian. In the latter he rightly applies our Lord’s promise of 
the rivers of living water to all believers; although even here he 
almost confines the communion of the Spirit to that which is to 
be obtained in the public ministrations of the Church. 

Nor was it possible for good Bishop Wilson to omit or slur over 
this cardinal doctrine. He says well and plainly, after his manner, 
in his 22d Sermon, “ It would be no blessing for men to be con- 
vinced of the truth of the Christian religion by considering the 
miraculous powers of the Holy Ghost, by which it was first estab- 
lished, unless they afterward live answerable to what that religion 
requires of them, which they cannot possibly do without the con- 
tinual grace and assistance of that‘same Holy Spirit.” And again, 
“God, for Christ’s sake, has given us the earnest of His Spirit in 
Baptism,” to the end that we may live under the continual gov- 
ernance of the Spirit, and may bring forth the fruits of the Spirit. 
Tfow much fierce controversy would have been avoided, how much 
would the peace of the Church have been promoted, if the bap- 
tismal gift had always been spoken of in this sober, well-weighed 
language ! 

Baxter’s exposition of the subject we are considering, in his Life 
of Faith (P. 11. ce. m1), is simple, clear, and sound. “The most 


NOTE E, 297 


excellent measure of the Spirit given by Christ after His Ascen- 
sion to the Gospel Church is to be distinguished from that which 
was before communicated; and this Spirit of Christ is it which our 
Christian faith hath special respect to. Without the Spirit of God, 
as the perfective principle, Nature would not have been Nature: 
Gen. i.2. All things would not have been good, and very good, 
but by the communication of goodness: and without somewhat of 
that Spirit there would be no moral goodness in any of mankind: 
without some special operations of that Spirit, the godly before 
Christ’s coming in the flesh would not have been godly, nor in any 
present capacity of glory. Therefore there was some gift of the 
Spirit before. But yet there was an eminent gift of the Spirit 
proper to the Gospel times, which the former ages did not know ; 
which is so much above the former gift, that it is sufficient to 
prove the verity of Christ. For first, there was use for the special 
attestation of the Father, by way of. power, by miracles and His 
Resurrection, to own His Son. Secondly, the Wisdom and Word 
of God Incarnate must needs bring a special measure of wisdom 
to His disciples, and therefore give a greater measure of the Spirit 
for illumination. Thirdly, the design of redemption being the rev- 
elation of the love of God, and the recovery of our love to Him, 
there must needs be a special measure of the Spirit of love shed 
abroad upon our hearts. And in all these three respects the Spirit 
was accordingly communicated. 

“But was it not the Spirit of Christ, which was in the prophets 
and in all the godly before Christ’s coming? ‘The Spirit of Christ 
is either that measure of the Spirit, which was given after the first 
Covenant of Grace, as it differeth from the state of man in inno- 
cency, and from the state of man in his apostasy and condemna- 
tion: and thus it was the Spirit of Christ which was then given, 
so far as it was the Covenant and Grace of Christ, by which men 
were then saved. But there was a fuller Covenant to be made 
after His coming, and a fuller measure of grace to be given, and 
a full attestation of God for the establishment and promulgation of 
this Covenant, and accordingly a fuller and special gift of the 
Spirit. And this is called the Spirit of Christ, in the peculiar 
Gospel sense. 

“ How is it said that the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because 
Christ was not yet glorified? It is meant of the special measure 
of the Spirit, which was to be Christ’s special Witness and Agent 


298 NOTE H. 


in the world. They had before that measure of true grace, which 
was necessary to the salvation of believers, before the Incarnation 


_ and Resurrection of Christ; which was the Spirit of Christ, as the 


light before sunrising is the light of the sun: and if they died in 


that case, they would have been saved. But they had not the 
signal Spirit of the Gospel, settled and resident with them, but 
only some little taste of it, for casting out devils, and for cures, at 
that time when Christ sent them by a special mission to preach, 
and gave them a sudden special gift. — 

“‘ And as such gifts of the Spirit were given to the Apostles as 
their office required, so those sanctifying graces, or that spiritual 
life, light, and love, are given by it to all true Christians, which 
their calling and salvation doth require. By all this it appeareth 
that the Holy Ghost is both Christ’s great Witness, objectively in 
the world, by which He is owned of God, and proved to be true, 
and also His Advocate or great Agent in the Church, both to in- 
dite the Scriptures, and to sanctify souls. So that no man can be 
a Christian indeed, without these three, the objective witness of 
the Spirit to the truth of Christ, the Gospel taught by the Spirit 
in the Apostles, and the quickening, ilipraihssxptons and sanctifying 
work of the Spirit upon his soul.” 

In the Dissertation with which Lightfoot closes his Horae 
ERE he illustrates the declaration, Ovxw veg HY IIysvuc 
aytoy, by the Jewish tradition concer ning the cessation of prophecy. 
“The Jerusalem Talmudists say : ies were five things wanting 
under the second Temple, which were under the first; the Fire 
from heaven, the Ark, Urim and Thummim, the Oil of anointing, 
and the Holy Spirit or the Spirit of prophecy. Of the Spirit of 
prophecy, the Babylonian Talmudists have these words also: 
‘From the death of the later prophets, Hageai, Zechariah, and 
Malachi, the Holy Spirit ceased from Israel.’ In the first gener- 
ation, indeed, after the return out of Babylon, that the gift of 
prophecy flourished, those prophets do witness. — But that gener- 
ation being extinct, the gift of prophecy vanished also, and ap- 
peared no more before the morning of the Gospel. To this that 
of St. John hath respect, chap. vii. 38. Ota ijy avetuc aytor, 
“The Holy Ghost was not yet:” and Acts xix. 2. "AAR ovdé eb 
mystue ayioy éotiv, nxovoousy, “We have not heard, whether 
there be any Holy Ghost.” Which words (he says in his Chron- 


NOTE H. 299 


ica Temporum) refer to the correct opinion commonly entert ained 
among the Jews; viz.: that the Holy Spirit after the death of Ezra, 
Hageai, Zechariah, and Malachi, was taken away from the Israel- 
ites: Juchasin, fol. 15. Moreover, they deny haying heard that 
He had been restored.” 

Matthew Henry’s note on our passage has the genial freshness 
and the richness in scriptural illustration which characterize his 
excellent Commentary. 

Whitby points out the connection between our Lord’s language, 
and the ceremonies of the day on which he was speaking: and he 
refers to the prophecy of Zechariah (xiv. 8), that living waters 
shall go out from Jerusalem. He also says rightly, “ that Christ 
here speaks of the internal gifts of the Spirit.” But his specifica- 
tion of these internal gifts is less satisfactory: “ those of Prepac 
tongues, of wisdom, and the knowledge of all mysteries.” 

During the eighteenth century Theology in our Church, as 
indeed in every branch of the whole Church, stood so low, par- 
taking in the intellectual and moral degeneracy of the age, that 
from few divines of that period are we likely to gain much insight 
into the deeper mysteries of our faith, unless it be from those who 
were rejected and despised by the popular voice. Least of all are 
we likely to gain such concerning the operations of the Spirit. 
For the views of doctrine, which we have already found in some 
of the leading writers of the seventeenth century, became more 
and more generally diffused, being in unison with the fashionable 
material philosophy, and with the self-sufficiency which character- 
ized the nations at the head of the civilization of Europe. Thus 
in time we sank into such a state, that Coleridge says, with too 
much justice (Remains, rv. 118), the holy festival of Whitsunday 
almost “ became unmeaning, as the clergy had become generally 
Arminian, and interpreted the descent of the Spirit as the gift of 
miracles, and of miraculous infallibility by inspiration.” The apt- 
ness to adopt this interpretation, we have seen, existed in all ages 
of the Church, inasmuch as it springs from the common tendency 
of human nature to desire a sign, something new and startling, 
that may stimulate and gratify the love of novelty, without disturb- 
ing the conscience, or calling for an exertion of the will. But in 
proportion as the understanding and common sense of mankind 
set themselves up more and more to try and judge the mysteries 
of faith, this aptness grew more predominant. 


300 NOTE H. 


Waterland, who among the theologians of his time is the most 
powerful champion of the true faith, hardly touched, save incident- 
ally, on the operations of the Spirit (see vol. 11. p. 115, v. p. 45). 
His great task was to assert the divine Personality of the Word 
against the Arian and Socinian impugners of the truth. Among 
his posthumous Sermons however there is one, the 26th, on the 
Nature and Manner in which the Holy Spirit may be supposed to 
operate upon us, and the Marks and Tokens of such Operation, 
which shows his usual clearness and sobriety of judgment, cor- 
recting excesses on the side of too much, without falling into 
equally injurious excesses on the side of too little. 

But the Comforter was to abide with Christ’s Church for ever. 
Hence it has repeatedly been seen that, when He was forgotten, 
and His abiding presence and influence were almost denied, by 
those who occupied the chief places in the outward Church, He 
has manifested Himself to others, who, as of old, have been 
mocked, and said to have been Sull of new wine, nay, have been 
persecuted, and even cast out from the outward communion of the 
Church. This, which had happened often before, happened again 
in the last century. The men who were awakened to a deeper 
consciousness that there can be no Christian life in the soul, 
except through the operation of the Spirit, were, some of them, 
led or driven to secede from our Church, while others had to 
endure reproach and scorn within it. On the other hand, the 
dominant prosaic Rationalism laid down that all manner of enthu- 
siasm must needs be foolish and mischievous. One of our bish- 
ops wrote a book against Enthusiasm, as a quality fit only for 
Papists and Methodists: it would have been difficult to pronounce 
a severer sentence against our Church. Nor was the book of 
such a kind that it could be of use to the persons against whom it 
was written: for it evinced no sympathy with the deep feelings 
and wants and consciousnesses which were venting themselves 
even in their most offensive absurdities, no insight into the mani- 
fold causes which helped to delude them, no desire to separate the 
wheat and preserve it from the conflagration of the tares, no 
recognition of that which was holy and just and true in their zeal, 
their energy, and their devotion. Folly and fraud were the 
author’s summary sentence; and with these two words, blind as 
the hangman’s rope, he strung together the puppets of straw, that 
he called by the names of Wesley and Whitfield and Zinzendorf, 


NOTE H. 301 


along with others under the denomination of St. Anthony, St. 
Francis, St. Ignatius, and St. Teresa. 

Another bishop, one of the ablest and most learned men of his 
day, took upon him to define what a reasonable person may 
believe concerning the Doctrine of Grace. It is a proof of the 
fascination which lies in a celebrated name, that Warburton’s 
work has been highly extolled, even by such a man as Reginald 
Heber, who says of it, in his Bampton Lectures, that it “must ever 
be accounted, so far as its subject extends, in the number of those 
works, which are the property of every age and country, and of 
which, though succeeding critics may detect the human blemishes, 
the vigor and originality will remain, perhaps, unrivalled,” (p. 12). 
For my own part, few books have pained or disgusted me more 
than this virulent polemical pamphlet, wherein, as so often in 
Warburton’s writings, club-law is the order of the day, and one 
fierce blow after another is poured down on the unfortunate victims 
of his wrath. The very title of the book betokens its character : 
The Doctrine of Grace; or the Office and Operations of the Holy 
Spirit vindicated from the Insults of Infidelity and the Abuses of 
Fanaticism. A man who sat down to write, with the feelings 
here expressed uppermost in his mind, could never write intelli- 
gently concerning the workings of the Spirit: indeed one may. 
justly say of this Doctrine of Grace, that it is utterly graceless. 
Of course it is clever: Warburton’s wildest extravagances are so: 
but doctrinally it is of very little value. The promise that the 
Comforter should abide with us for ever is said to have been emi- 
nently fulfilled, so far as He is the Spirit of Truth, by “ His con-- 
stant abode and supreme illumination in the sacred Scriptures of 
the New Testament” (8. 1.¢. 5). It is admitted indeed. paren-- 
thetically that “His ordinary influence occasionally assists the 
faithful of all ages:” but this He did under the Old Covenant: 
nor is there any recognition of the fundamental truth, that No 
man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. On 
the other hand the Comforter, “as the Purifier of the will,” is said 
to abide with the Church for ever, in that “ the virtue of Charity 
is to accompany the Christian Church throughout all its stages. 
here on earth” (B. 11. ¢. 2): that is to say, the Holy Ghost is “ to: 
do His perfect work in the enlargement of the Heart by universal 
benevolence :” and while the other graces of the Spirit are over- 
looked, —as if they no longer belonged to a Christian life, or as. 

26 


302 NOTE H. 


if they could spring up without His influence, — Charity itself, or, 
‘universal benevolence,” with which it is identified, is so repre- 
sented as if its chief and most precious fruit had been the Tolera- 
tion-Act. At the same time the tone of the pamphlet shows that, 
if its author had been born in the twelfth century, no man would 
have been more zealous in kindling fires to consume the 
Waldenses. 

So strange was the prevailing ignorance concerning the ele- 
mentary truths of Christianity, that we find the most learned of 
our prelates assigning the following reasons why the extraordi- 
nary operations of the Spirit were only required during the first 
ages. ‘The nature and genius of the Gospel were so averse to all 
the religious institutions of the world, that the whole strength of 
human prejudices was set in opposition to it. To overcome the 
obstinacy and violence of these prejudices, nothing less than the 
power of the Holy One was sufficient. He did the work of man’s 
conversion, and reconciled an unbelieving world to God.” As 
though this could be done once for all, in any other way than by 
the one all-perfect Sacrifice of the Saviour; and as though the 
conversion and reconciliation were not just as necessary in every 
age, nay, in every individual case, as in the first ages of the 
Church. “ At present, whatever there may be remaining of the 
bias of prejudice, (as such will mix itself even with our best con- 
clusions,) it draws the other way.” Happy world! well nigh set 
free from all prejudice! nay, so happy, that its few remaining 
prejudices are in favor of Christianity! It is plain that Christian- 
ity here can mean nothing but the bare outward profession. “ So 
much then of His task was finished; and the faith, from thence- 
forth, had a favorable hearing. Indeed, were we to make our 
estimate of the present state of the religious world from the jour- 
nals of modern fanatics, we should be tempted still to think our- 
selves in a land of Pagans, with all their prejudices full blown 
upon them.” Verily this passage of Warburton would be a strong 
presumption that we were so. “ A further reason for the abate- 
ment of the influences of the supporting Spirit of Grace is the 
peace and security of the Church. There was a time when the 
powers of this world were combined together for its destruction. 
At such a period nothing but superior aid from above could sup- 
port humanity in sustaining so great a conflict as that which the 
holy martyrs encountered with joy and rapture, the horrors of 


NOTE H. 303 


death in torment. But now the profession of the Christian faith 
is attended with ease and honor; and the conviction, which the 
weight of human testimony, and the conclusions of human reason 
afford us, of its truth, is abundantly sufficient to support us in our 
religious perseverance” (B. 11. ¢. 3). Alas! who ever was “ suf- 
ficiently supported in his religious perseverance” by such 
motives? No one: no one ever was,—no one ever will be so, — 
if any thing be meant by “ religious perseverance,” beyond a firm 
outward profession of faith; which may arise from mere human 
motives, even as loyalty and patriotism and constancy in friend- 
ship may; although these too require far deeper foundations, than 
“the weight of human testimony, and the conclusions of human 
reason.” One is disposed to marvel in what eremitical seclusion 
aman must have lived, with his mind hermetically closed against 
all the lessons of history and of contemporary experience, to sup- 
pose such causes capable of effecting any thing so alien to our 
nature as “ religious perseverance.” 

On this point let me strengthen my argument with the follow- 
ing words, taken from the second of Horsley’s two excellent Ser- 
mons on Eph. iv. 30, on the various gifts of the Spirit: “If the 
principle be true, that, without a constant action of God’s Spirit 
on the mind of man, no man can persevere in a life of virtue and 
religion, the Christian, who finds himself empowered to lead this 
life, cannot err in his conclusion, that God’s power is at present 
exerted upon himself in his own person for his final preservation.” 
If here is not problematical, but inferential, it having been shown 
previously that this is the doctrine of Scripture. Indeed Hors- 
ley’s words meet Warburton’s so closely, we might almost fancy 
he had them in his eye. One is tempted to ask too, whether 
Warburton can ever have read and reflected on the purport of 
such declarations as, Blessed be ye poor ; for yours is the Kingdom 
of God:— Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness 
sake ; for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven: or such as The natural 
man receweth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are 
foolishness to him: nor can he know them ; for they are spiritually 
discerned. Nay, the whole New Testament is a direct contradic- 
tion and refutation of every thing here asserted by Warburton ; 
who in this passage was merely giving utterance to the opinions 
entertained in his days by the bulk of our clergy: the insatiate 
lover of paradox was the mouthpiece of the vulgar. In fact this is 


304 NOTE H. 


just the view of Christianity, which the world, when through the 
course and order of events it puts on the name of Christ, is ready 
to recognize, and which it may recognize without changing a sin- 
gle hair in its leopard’s skin. Even that sagacious couplet of his 
favorite moralist, — 


But Satan now is wiser than of yore, 
And tempts by making rich, not making poor; — 


might have taught Warburton that the “ease and honor,” which 
now attend the profession of the Christian faith, are not likely to 
be very efficacious substitutes for the power of the Comforter in 
making men Christians. 

In more recent times a theory, nearly resembling Warburton’s, 
concerning the peculiar office of the Comforter, as the immediate 
object of our Lord’s promise, has been brought forward by a per- 
son of a very different spirit, the late admirable Bishop Heber. 
Of him, having had the privilege of knowing him, and having 
experienced the winning kindness which he showed to all, and 
which, in consequence of my connection with him, he perhaps 
showed still more abundantly to me, — having seen the love which 
beamed from his face, and manifested itself in all his words and 
actions, —I cannot think without affectionate reverence. His 
treatise however on the Holy Spirit, as developed in his Bampton 
Lectures, seems to me to be an elaborate attempt to urge a hypo- 
thesis, which is totally groundless and mistaken. The text pre- 
fixed to his eight Sermons is the same verse of St. John (xvi. 7), 
which forms the subject of this. But unfortunately he did not 
spend much thought in fathoming the mysterious depths of mean- 
ing contained in it. Else this verse of itself might have shaken 
his confidence in the notion, which it is the main purpose of his 
Lectures to maintain, that our Lord’s promise to His Disciples, 
that the Comforter should come to them in His stead, and should 
abide with them for ever, referred solely in the first instance to 
the knowledge of the nature of the Christian Covenant, which 
they were to receive from inspiration, and that, as an enduring 
promise to the Church, it is fulfilled exclusively in the gift of the 
Scriptures of the New Testament, whereby “the Holy Ghost per- 
forms all the functions of the promised Comforter.” Nor does 
Heber pay much attention to the important verses which follow 
our text, or try to reconcile them with his hypothesis. Still less 


Pe 7 


NOTE H. 305 


does he examine the declaration we have been considering in this 
Note, touching the rivers of water which were to flow from the 
gift of the Spirit, and the other passages in which the Comforter 
is spoken of. ‘Thus his work is an example of the errors wherein 
theologians have so frequently involved themselves, by a practice, 
which in other departments of knowledge would be accounted 
-unwarrantable and perverse, of picking out a few sentences, or 
scraps of sentences, from the Bible, with little, if any, regard to 
the context, and then spinning a theory out of them by divers 
logical processes. He contends that the gift of the Comforter 
spoken of by our Lord must have been something altogether dis- 
tinctive and peculiar, something that no one had ever enjoyed till 
then, not even the Apostles themselves (see the beginning of the 
fifth lecture) : and then, laying the whole stress of his argument 
on this one point, without duly considering the various qualities 
and acts predicated of the Comforter, he arrives at his extraordi- 
nary conclusion, that the Scriptures of the New Testament are 
the one distinctive privilege of the Christian Church, and conse- 
quently that in them, and in them alone, Christ’s promise is still 
realized. This is a singular illustration of Coleridge’s remark 
(Remains, 111. 93), that, while “the Papacy elevated the Church, 
to the virtual exclusion or suppression of the Scriptures, the 
modern Church of England, since Chillingworth, has so raised 
up the Scriptures as to annul the Church. Both alike (he adds) 
have quenched the Holy Spirit, as the mesothesis of the two.” 
That this has been the result with some, whose names occupy a 
high rank among our divines, we have seen. But Reginald 
Heber’s error was confined to the interpretation of a particular 
promise, and did not extend to a denial or disregard of that, which 
is one of the two fundamental principles of Christianity : he was 
too true a Christian to fancy that any one could be so, except 
through the working of the Spirit. If he coincides with War- 
burton on one side of his theory, he differs no less strongly than 
Horsley from the whole tenor of the passage which I quoted from 
him. “ Without that holy energy (he says, in p. 277), which it is 
in the bosom of God to grant or to withhold, we may vainly study 
the evidences of religion, and vainly aspire to show forth in our 
practice the lessons of holiness, which our outward ears have im- 
bibed. When Grace is wanting, we have neither power nor 
effectual will to raise our affections beyond the narrow circle of 
26 * 


306 NOTE H. 


mortality: nor, having once assented to the hopes and precepts of 
religion, can we retain those hopes and precepts in our minds as a 
pervading and triumphant principle.” The reason why he denies 
that this Grace bore any part in Christ’s promise, is, that this is 
not peculiar to the Christian dispensation, but had been vouch- 
safed already to the Jews, and even, in a certain measure, to 
Heathens. Yet the whole order of nature is for the dawn to pre- 
cede the sunrise. The light of the sun is seen, before the sun 
himself appears; and yet the rising of the sun may truly be called 
a new, distinctive, epochal act. This is well set forth by Ols- 
hausen in his Commentary on John vii. 39: “As the Son was 
working in the world long before his Incarnation, so did the Holy 
Ghost also act upon mankind long before His Effusion. But as it 
was at the Incarnation of the Son that the fulness of His Life 
first manifested itself, so it was not until the Effusion which took 
place on the day of Pentecost that the Spirit poured forth all His 
power. Hence the Effusion of the Spirit is the same moment in 
His manifestation, that the Incarnation is in that of the Son.” 
What the gift of the Spirit, as the distinctive characteristic of 
the Christian dispensation, is, has been discussed by Mr. Newman 
in an eloquent and powerful Sermon, the 18th in his third Volume. 
Although he does not handle any of the texts we have been exam- 
ining, the main subject of his argument is the same: and he 
rightly maintains that, in considering the working of the Spirit in 
the Church of Christ, we are not to confine ourselves to any one 
of His manifestations, but to embrace them all. At the same 
time some of the positions and expositions in that Sermon are 
very questionable. The assertion, that, “if we could see souls, we 
should see those of infants just baptized bright as the cherubim, 
as flames of fire rising heavenward in sacrifice to God” (p. 290), 
is an extravagance contradicted by universal experience, without 
the shghtest shadow of any thing like an exception, and is utterly 
destitute of all positive Scriptural warrant, which alone could jus- 
tify us in setting experience and observation at defiance,—nay, 
is contrary to the whole analogy of Scripture, to every thing that 
Scripture says on the growth of our spiritual life, and to every 
representation which it gives of the effects produced by Baptism. 
Such extravagances on such sacred subjects are greatly to be 
lamented, as they repel minds that have a sense of truth, and love 
it, from a doctrine which they see thus perverted, and decked out 


NOTE H. 307 


in such gaudy trappings. Moreover it seems to me, that, in what 
he says in p. 281, Mr. Newman does not sufficiently recognize the 
great difference between the spiritual graces manifested in the | 
lives of Christian saints, and those of which we have the record in 
the Old Testament. Surely there has been something answering, 
at least in part, to that transfiguration and spiritualization of the. 
Law, which we behold in the Sermon on the Mount. Surely too 
our Saviour’s New Commandment, the commandment of self. 
denying, self-devoting, self-sacrificing love, of love after the divine 
pattern which He gave us, has never been fulfilled in any manner 
from the beginning, except under the light of the Gospel, and 
through the indwelling power of the Spirit of love. Indeed I 
know not what Christian meaning can be attached to that state of 
glory, which, Mr. Newman contends, is the consequence of the 
presence of the Spirit in the Church, if the effects of that pres- 
ence are not manifested by higher and more abundant graces, 
than were to be seen in the hearts and lives of men before the 
Spirit came down to enter upon His work of sanctification. Such 
a glory would be as unsubstantial as a vision in the clouds: and 
in truth the dreamy notions which are entertained concerning the 
baptismal glorification of the soul, might seem to be a fancy bor- 
rowed from the glow of dawn, and are still less substantial. It 
were much to be wished that theologians would pay greater atten- 
tion to the Leibnitzian principle of a sufficient cause, in its twofold 
application, as requiring a reciprocal correspondence between the 
cause and the effect; and that they were less hasty in imagining 
causes, of which they are unable to discern any proportional 
effects. When we look into ourselves indeed, and compare what 
we are, with what we ought to be, and should have been had we 
made a right use of the means of grace we have received, we 
shall be ready to acknowledge for ourselves, and perhaps for the 
whole body of Christians in all ages, that, considering our inesti- 
mable privileges and advantages, the Heathens might rise up in 
the judgment and condemn us. But if there be not a clear supe- 
riority in the sanctification of Christians, — of some portion, what- 
ever that portion may be, of Christ’s Church, — of those who lived 
before the Grace and Mercy of God were revealed in Jesus 
Christ, and before the Spirit came down to dwell in the Church 
for ever, — what must we say ? to what conclusion must we come ? 
unless that Satan is altogether mightier than God, and has baffled 


308 NOTE H. 


and frustrated all that the Father and the Son and the Spirit, in 
their infinite wisdom and compassion and love, have vainly en- 
deavored to accomplish, at such an incalculable cost, for the 
reclaiming of mankind. They, who, believing in baptismal tran- 
substantiation, are compelled by unvarying experience to confess 
that this miraculous change in all, or, —as, to save appearances, 
they will fain say,—in the great majority of cases, is, “ Like 
snow that falls upon a river, A moment white, then gone for ever,” 
may not be appalled by such a conclusion. This however is only 
another melancholy instance how a single cherished error will 
warp and bedim the whole understanding, strong and clear as it 
otherwise might be; even as a single cherished sin will debase and 
corrupt the whole moral character. 

If we turn to the commentators on St John, we find the prom- 
ise in the seventh chapter well explained by Lampe, whose work 
is hardly known as it deserves to be. For, though its scholastic 
form is cumbrous and repulsive, and though it is too much tainted 
with the Cocceian system of allegorical interpretation, it combines 
sound philology with sound theology in a manner to render it very 
serviceable to students. On our Lord’s words at the feast of tab- 
ernacles, he says, “By the Spirit the Scriptures pretty often mean 
the blessings and gifts of the Holy Spirit, and indeed the more 
excellent ones. For those who believe have received incipiently 
the Holy Spirit, since faith is the work of the Spirit. It appears 
then that reference is here made to such operations as faith may 
lack, which it actually did lack under the Old Testament, and 
with which the Church was soon to be endowed. Moreover, since 
these operations may be either ordinary or extraordinary, and the 
extraordinary embrace those miraculous gifts which were commu- 
nicated immediately from the commencement of the infant 
Church, we think these also were too special to be considered 
as promised to every one who believeth in Jesus. The ordinary 
operations of the Holy Spirit then, are especially referred to, but 
in that measure which was looked for after the work of redemp- 
tion in the economy of the New Testament was accomplished, 
which economy is therefore denominated the minisiry of the 
Spirit. 2 Cor. iii. 6. Such are, a clearer knowledge of the mys- 
teries of the kingdom of heaven, a richer consolation through 
peace of conscience in the full remission of sins, joy in the Holy 
Spirit, boldness, liberty, peace, ete. These operations, emphati- 


NOTE It. 309 


cally, were announced by Jesus under the symbol of rivers of liv- 
ing water, on account of their copiousness, variety, and broad 
diffusion among the nations, — flowing out of the hearts of believ- 
ers, —as well because so great measure of heavenly gifts ought 
not to be covered up, but exhibited by appropriate fruits, as 
because this great measure of the Holy Spirit in its effusion ought — 
to afford a salutary medium for rendering others partakers of the 
same abounding grace of God. In a certain sense, Old Testa- 
ment believers had in fact already received in their small measure ~ 
the Holy Spirit. Even before the flood He was joined with the 
preaching of righteousness, 1 Pet. iii. 19; and strove with the 
wicked, Gen. vi. 3; and bore witness in the Prophets, 1 Pet. i. 4; 
Acts xxviil. 25; and was present in the tabernacle, Jer. ]xiii. 11; 
and directed David and filled him with spiritual joy, Ps. li. 13, 14. 
But not yet was that more abundant measure of the Holy Spirit 
given; not yet were those special blessings of the New Testament 
which we just now mentioned. This can easily be shown by an 
enumeration of the defects of the Old Testament, which are dia- 
metrically opposed to the indicated blessings of the New Testa- 
_ ment; such as the darkness of ignorance condensed by the veil of 
Moses, the recollection and reproach of a ransom not yet paid, 
and thence the growing spirit of fear and servitude, ete.” 

Lampe’s work was published in 1726. As we draw toward the 
close of the same century, we sink into the slough of Rationalism. 
Knowledge then was held to be omnipotent, and that too empiri- 
cal, abstract, formal, superficial knowledge, which had done little 
more than skim the froth of history, and dissect the carcase 
of philosophy, and which was so far from availing to help men 
out of the slough, as not even to show them that they were in 
it. The shock of the French Revolution, and of the calamities 
that issued from thence, was needed to open their eyes. With the 
majority even of those who meant well to what they regarded as 
the cause of Christianity, it had become a prevalent notion, that 
the best service which could be rendered to Christianity, was to 
strip it as much as possible of its mysteries, and to prove its per- 
fect coincidence with the conclusions of man’s understanding ; its 
supernaturalness consisting in its having so long forestalled the 
discoveries, which human reason did not arrive at till seventeen 
centuries after. Thus in 1771 Noesselt printed a Dissertation to 
prove that avec in this passage of St. John means Christ’s doc- 


310 NOTE H. 


trine, which was to be spread over the earth by the preaching of 
His disciples. This interpretation chimed in so well with the tem- 
per of an age unwilling to recognize any thing in Christ, beyond 
a moral teacher, a wiser and better Socrates, that it was readily 
adopted. Rosenmiiller paraphrases our Lord’s words thus: “ If 
any one is desirous of learning he may commit himself to Me in 
a course of discipline and use My teachings aright. Whoever 
commits himself to My instruction, by him shall other men also be 
largely imbued with the treasures of knowledge.” Kuinoel says 
the same thing in nearly the same words; for in the slough of 
Rationalism one makes little progress, except by rolling out of one 
rut into another. Ofcourse, where the teachérs of Theology are 
mainly professors in a university, who spend their lives between 
their lecture-rooms and their studies, and who have little practi- 
cal acquaintance with other forms of life, and scanty experience 
of any weightier difficulties than that of gaining assent to such or 
such a proposition, there must needs be a tendency to look upon 
knowledge as the chief object and rule and principle of life: and 
as this class is far more numerous, and exercises a far greater in- 
fluence on the national mind, in Germany, than in other countries, 
—as Germans moreover are not withheld by the same strong 
checks, which operate in other countries, from publishing their 
heterodox speculations, — Rationalism became the peculiar stigma 
of German Theology. In fact too, not only did much find utter- 
ance in Germany, which in other countries was latent, or merely 
avowed by such as openly rejected Christianity altogether, but the 
very habit of expressing and circulating all manner of opinions 
fostered the license of speculation, and, like all habits, propagated 
itself. That shallow temper of mind however, blind to its own 
infirmities, which exaggerates the value of knowledge, and which 
deems that such portions of the Gospel as can be received by the 
mere exercise of the understanding are the whole substance of 
religion, —a temper of mind totally unfitted for recognizing those 
primary truths in the Gospel, the very recognition of which 
involves a conviction that man has deeper wants, and the Gospel 
more precious gifts, than those which pertain ‘to the understand- 
ing,— this temper was diffused more or less over all the nations 
which prided themselves on occupying a prominent post in the 
civilization of Europe. Hence, when compared with such expo- 
sitions, as that of Noesselt, Rosenmiiller, and Kuinoel, even 


NOTE H. old 


Paulus is almost refreshing, who, in explaining the 39th verse, 
says, “It was the impression which the victorious resurrection of 
Jesus, and his passing to a higher, glorious state of bliss made on 
His disciples, that first produced —that higher tone of mind in 
them, in which the zealous servant of God will strive more inde- 
pendently and energetically to work good with all his might. In 
order to have a source for this higher strain of feeling, they 
assumed that a myst, or spiritual principle of life and motion, 
had been just awakened by God in man. Thus we can easily 
understand how John could say, Oiaw yg iy avstua dyroy for 
this holy enthusiasm did not yet exist in the disciples of Jesus. — 
So long as Jesus was with His disciples, He was naturally every 
thing to them; and they were merely His followers. It was 
necessary that they should be left to themselves, — ere they could 
rely on having sufficient power in themselves, and could draw it 
out of themselves, like the spark out of the flint, by their self- 
reliance. — The conceptions which the Apostles and other primi- 
tive followers of Jesus attached to His being glorijied by the Father, 
could not but produce a contempt in them for earthly sufferings 
and labors, and even for death, with a confident expectation of 
unforeseen succor and preservation for the cause and the workers 
of good, in short all that which St. John calls overcoming the 
world.” I said, that even Paulus, in comparison to his brother 
commentators, who exalt knowledge above all things, is almost 
refreshing ; but verily, when one reads over his remarks, one is 
reminded of the homely proverb, that there is small choice of rot- 
ten apples. Yet these were the writers of whom many said, | 
These are your gods, O men of sense, who will bring you out of the | 
Jewish Canaan, and out of the wilderness of the dark ages, to the 
land where you shall be rich in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, 
and enjoy the fleshpots of Egypt into the bargain. 

The decline of the Roman Empire has been compared in a cele- , 
brated simile to the latter part of the course of the Rhine, where 
that king of European rivers splits his mass of waters into a num- 
ber of branches, and is almost swallowed up and lost in the sands 
of Holland. Now the Rhine is not the only river that is thus 
shorn of its glory before it perishes: nor is the fate of the Roman 
Empire the only parallel that the history of the world offers. 
The lot of many things in nature, of many among the works and 
institutions of man, has been after this analogy; and the same 


2 2 NOTE 8H. 


comparison suggests itself, when we contemplate the condition of 
Christian Theology at the close of the last century. To one who 
knew what Theology had been, and saw what it was then, yet 
who could not pierce beyond the actual state of things, it must 
have seemed as though the mighty stream, which had been flowing 
through nation after nation, and through generation after genera- 
tion, digging itself a channel through the mountains, refreshing 
the valleys, and compassing and fertilizing the plains, —and which 
had borne the minds of men along with it, widening and deepen- 
ing with every fresh accession of intellectual or moral power, — 
was about to end, not by pouring itself out into that eternal ocean, 
toward which it had ever appeared to be journeying, but by being 
broken into petty rills, choked with mud, and engulfed in quick- 
sands. Indeed it may have struck some readers, that the fore- 
going sketch, so far as it pretends to give any thing like a repre- 
sentation of the opinions held in various ages of the Church 
concerning the workings of the Spirit, is strangely repugnant to 
the proposition maintained in the preceding Note, that in Theo- 
logy, as in other departments of knowledge, there has been a pro- 
gressive development, whereby later ages have attained to a fuller 
systematic apprehension of the Truth, than was possessed by the 
earlier. This appearance has doubtless been increased by my 
having merely cited certain of the most eminent divines at divers 
periods, without attempting to trace the connection and points 
of transition amongst them. For hereby a greater importance 
attaches itself to the intellectual and spiritual qualifications of 
\ individual theologians: and as in the warfare of early times there 
are more conspicuous examples of individual heroism, the same 
thing has happened in other relations, intellectual and moral. 
To have done more would have been inconsistent with the nature 
of a note, and would have required the elaborate and well 
digested studies preparatory to an independent work. Indeed the 
subject itself made it difficult to do more: for the consideration of 
the office and operations of the Third Person in the Holy Trinity 
has never formed so prominent a part in Theology, as that of the 
First and Second Persons: whence there is less of order and 
sequence in the views themselves; and they have taken their 
shape much more from the character of individual minds. Be- 
sides, it is very true, that the eighteenth century does form the 
great difficulty in the way of the philosopher, who sets himself to 


NOTE H. 313 


investigate the intellectual and moral history of man, in the belief 
that the human race has been progressive. To overcome this diffi- 
culty, we must bear in thought, that the progress of mankind, if 
there be any, has at all events, as is plain from every portion of 
history, never been uniform and rectilinear; that, according to 
the law of the whole creation, it has had its periods of alternation, 
its ebbs and flows, its nights and days, its winters and summers, 
and that these may have been measured out by centuries; that 
the same life does not go on waxing in vigor indefinitely, but 
wanes and decays and perishes, though succeeded by other lives, 
in such a manner that the realm of life is continually enlarging ; 
that the blossoms do not remain on the tree along with the fruit, 
but fall off to make way for the fruit, which, however, does not 
ripen until after an interval of comparative barrenness. We 
must remember how something, which to the common eye has 
appeared almost like a thousand-yeared sleep, lay on the mind of 
Europe, ere it was fully awakened to the contemplation and culti- 
vation of the new world in which Christianity had placed it. 
Thus, in passing from that kind of dogmatical knowledge, which 
is founded on the implicit reception of the materials supplied by 
tradition, to that kind which is to be preceded by a critical ex- 
amination both of the objects of knowledge, and of the mind, its 
subject, man has had to tarry awhile in the wilderness of blank 
doubt and mere negations. Yet this very rationalizing of Scrip- 
ture, which has narrowed and degraded it into a conformity with 
the abstractions of the natural understanding, has been to prepare 
the way, we may trust, for the time when the voice of the Spirit, 
speaking in the Scriptures, shall be recognized to be in perfect 
concord with the intuitions of the clarified Reason. 

It would be a delicate, and could scarcely be otherwise than an 
invidious task, to examine whether any, and what evidence is 
afforded by the present state of English 'Theology to warrant such 
an expectation. With reference to our immediate inquiry, it is 
sufficient to remark, that the censure quoted above, in p. 299, 
from Coleridge, which was intended by him for the early years of 
this century, is no longer applicable to any thing like the same 
extent. Indeed, we have ground for much thankfulness in the 
belief that the abiding influence of the Spirit on the hearts of 
believers, isa more general element in the teaching of our Church 
now, than it has been since the time when the Nonconformists 

27 


314 NOTE H. 


were driven out. That German Theology has also undergone a 
change in a like direction of late, is not so well known perhaps in 
England. In the very worst times, indeed, some men were left in 
Germany, who had not bowed the knee to Baal; but the general 
improvement in the character of German Theology, did not take 
place till after the nation had been aroused by the sufferings 
which preceded the War of Deliverance, by the solemn voices 
which at that time sounded through every heart, and by the 
thankfulness and joy which the events of that war called forth. 
Even in the last dozen years, it is true, the Antichristian spirit 
has become stronger and more audacious and subtiler than ever ; 
and it is now waging open war against the name and existence of 
Christianity, against all the duties, all the hopes, all the holiest 
feelings of man. But even this is better than to lie imbedded 
and suffocated, or to sprawl and crawl about, in the slough of 
Rationalism: and along with the increased virulence of Infidelity, 
Faith too has become stronger and bolder and clearer: nor will he 
who knows what powers support such as are contending for the 
Truth, doubt on which side the ultimate victory will be. Among 
the commentaries on St. John, the tone of which has betokened this 
improvement, the earliest I know of is Tittmann’s; who is not 
indeed very eminent, either as a thinker or a scholar, and whose 
style is prolix and feeble, but whose exposition of our passage is 
in the main correct. Arguing against the doctrinary school, he 
says, “ Nor did Jesus have and bestow the blessings of instruction 
merely, but innumerable others; not only is He a Saviour by His 
teachings, but in other ways. Even if He had announced Him- 
self to be a Saviour by means of teaching, the Jews would still 
much the less have received Him; they would not, indeed, have 
understood Him, nor could they; for they were expecting in the 
Messiah, not a teacher, but rather a deliverer and promoter of 
happiness. But surely the blessings which were before every 
thing, were the knowledge of God and Christ, but especially the 
knowledge of the divine plan respecting the salvation of men 
through Christ, then also favor with God, and the forgiveness of 
sins, and a consciousness of Divine favor and of pardoned sin, 
faith, holiness in heart and life, the hope of a future life, and other 
things of this kind.” (pp. 306, 314.) 

Luecke, who also belongs to the better school of Theology, but, 
having had to wade through the slough of Rationalism in his 


NOTE pris 315 


youth, like most of his contemporaries, has some of its mud stick- 
ing to him, maintains somewhat pertinaciously and perversely, in 
all the three editions of his Commentary, that St. John, in our 
passage, has not apprehended our Lord’s meaning quite correctly. 
Comparing the expression in vii. 38, vdwe Cay, with the words to 
the Samaritan woman in iv. 14, he contends that vdwe Cov is 
equivalent to ¢a1) ataveog, and interprets our passage thus: “ He 
who believes in Me, and thus drinks of the living water, which I 
give to the thirsty,— out of his heart, as the Scripture says of the 
rivers of blessings in the days of the Messiah, will flow rivers of 
living water, that is, of eternal life. Not only will he himself be a 
partaker of eternal life; out of his fulness he will refresh others 
therewith. On the other hand St. John (Luecke says), under- 
standing vdwe Cov to be the Holy Spirit, takes Gsvoovor as an 
absolute, not a relative future, and the whole speech asa prophecy 
of the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost.— Yet Gevoover (he 
argues) cannot in this position be taken as an absolute future, to 
the exclusion of the present time: 70T¢, or something of the kind, 
should have been added. Since, according to St. John, faith, as 
soon as it springs up, produces life, we are disposed to understand 
Jesus as declaring that at the very first moment of faith the rivers 
of living water will immediately begin to flow.” Such criticism, 
it seems to me, applied to any writer, would be somewhat captious ; 
nor are the arguments tenable even philologically. Doubtless vdwe 
Cav in vii. 38 is equivalent to vdwo adhouevov elo Sway alaveov 
in iv. 14: for true life is also everlasting life: the only difference 
is, that in the first-cited passage our Lord is speaking with special 
reference to the influence and power of believers upon others. 
But it is not said in iv. 14 that the water is €w7 aiwreog, as Luecke 
implies: the water is the power of the Spirit manifesting itself in 
those gifts and graces which belong to eternal life, and to which 
eternal life belongs. Again, there is nothing in St. John’s words 
to limit Gevoovos, as an absolute fi uture, to a single specific moment, 
the day of Pentecost. They do not assert, or mean, that Jesus 
was speaking with exclusive reference to the descent of the Holy 
Ghost on that one day. What they assert is, that Jesus, in speak- 
ing of the rivers of living water, was speaking, by anticipation, of 
the gifts of the Spirit, which believers were to receive after His 
glorification, both on the day of Pentecost, and from that time for- 


316 NOTE H. 


ward. As to Luecke’s argument, that, according to our Lord’s 
words, the rivers of living water were to flow out of the hearts of 
believers immediately, before the day of Pentecost, a sufficient an- 
swer to it is afforded by the fact, that no such effect was wrought 
in any of the Apostles themselves prior to the descent of the Holy 
Ghost. Our Lord, speaking on the last day of the Feast of Tab- 
_ernacles, gave an assurance of that which was to take place at the 
next Feast of Tabernacles, after His glorification, and from that 
time forward until the end of the world. In like manner are we 
to understand all His spiritual promises, none of which were ful- 
filled during His life, nor could be, because they could not be 
fulfilled, except through the working of the Spirit, who was not 
yet given. 

Luecke further remarks that, though water in the Old Testa-~ 
ment is sometimes used as the symbol of the Holy Spirit, espe- 
cially in that the effusion of the Spirit is compared to the pouring 
out of water, the appropriate symbol of the Spirit in the New 
‘Testament is fire, water standing as the symbol of ¢w2 elwycos. 
After discussing a couple of explanations of the difference between 
the operation of the Spirit under the Old, and that under the New 
Dispensation, he concludes, “ The difference, if we compare I. 17. 
18. 33. iil. 84, cannot have been regarded by St. John as specific, 
but merely as consisting in this, that under the Old Testament the 
Holy Spirit was limited in His communications and revelations 
of Himself, whereas, after the incarnation and glorification of the 
Word, working freely in His whole Messianic fulness, He was 
given to believers permanently, and so as to be the ruling princi- 
ple of their lives.” In reply to this, I will quote some excellent 
remarks by Kling, from an article in the Theologische Studien for 
1836, which, if critics were not as impervious to conviction as the 
rest of mankind, would have made Luecke adopt a better expla- 
nation in his last edition. “J confess I cannot see why the sym- 
bol of fire, under which the Holy Ghost is represented in the New 
‘Testament, is to exclude that of water. On the contrary they 
serve as complements to each other, the former being the symbol 
of the Spirit in His penetrative, the latter in His refreshing and 
enlivening power. Since, in the Old Testament (Isai. xliv. 3), 
we find water used as an image of the Spirit, to signify the vivify- 
ing abundance of His effusion, what reason have we for asserting 
that éxyeeev (Acts x. 45. Tit. iii. 6) merely denotes fluidity and 


NOTE H. 317 


communicability generally, without any specific reference to the 
image of water? What too is the 277 Udatos addouevov in iv. 
14? except the [Iveta 0 Euehdov dou Pavery of neorevovtes 
sig avtov. Luecke admits that the [Zvevme is the principle of the 
Cw. But what does the Ifve vac impart, except Himself? He 
is at once the Giver and the Gift; and in this very place, vu. 39, 
He is regarded as the Life imparted to believers. As to 6evoou- ; 
Oty, it is unquestionably to be understood as a future, that is, not 
as expressing something that was to be given and to take place 
immediately, along with the act of faith, but at a subsequent mo- 
ment, which presupposes a higher development of the life of faith. 
The act of meoreveey implies a reception of the living water. Ifa 
man continues thus to receive, and allows what he receives to act 
freely upon him, he will arrive at a state where the divine life in 
him will become spontaneous: he acquires the faculty of spread- 
ing it around him: it becomes a fountain of living power, abiding 
in him, and issuing from him. ‘To this condition the first disciples 
were raised on the day of Pentecost. The Evangelist however is 
referring to that whole state of things, in which the spiritual life 
inherent in believers acts outwardly ; which state commenced after 
Christ’s glorification, and has continued ever since in His Church. 
Thus it was something purely future with regard to the hearers ; 
and there was no need of a zoré to express this. Luecke has not 
properly observed the distinction between the reception and quiet 
possession of the fun alw viosg, and the power of imparting it to 
others, or of exciting others to seek it by the manifestation of its 
indwelling power: nor has he perceived that ITvevpo ayloy in 
this passage, though it is equivalent to €wn, denotes a higher de- 
gree of this €w7 in man, which is not coincident with the first 
dawn of faith. In like manner what follows does not show a suf- 
ficiently definite conception of the [/ve Usa @ytov, when he makes 
the only difference between the Old and New Testament in this 
respect lie in the degree of abundance with which the Spirit was 
imparted : whereas this itself is the consummation of the divine 
Dispensation, the inherent and permanent indwelling of the divine 
life in the body of believers, and in the individual members of that 
body. On the other hand in the Old Testament there are merely 
scattered m@0An yes, in the way of prophecy, of strengthening, of 
admonition, of desire, individual awakenings, visions, operations 
27 * 


318 NOTE HY., 


of a preparatory kind. It is true, the hearers of Jesus could not 
at the moment understand His words; but this was not necessary, 
if they merely gained an anticipation of a rich and precious bless- 
ing, and were excited to long after it. The full insight into their 
meaning could only be acquired by their own living experience. 
So that this speech had the same appropriateness as all our Lord’s 
other deeper speeches, the meaning of which the disciples did not 
understand, until it was revealed to them by the Spirit” (pp. 132- 
134). 

This agrees in the main with what Nitzsch says, in his System 
of Christian Doctrine, § 84. ‘As under the Old Covenant it was 
necessary that those individual persons, by whom the Word of 
God was to be uttered for special purposes, legislatively or pro- 
phetically, and by whom the theocratic guidance and training of 
the typical people was to be carried on, — such persons as Moses, 
the Elders, the Judges, the Priests, the Kings, the Prophets, — 
should be in a state of peculiar, intimate communion with God, 
and should possess an inherent fitness, as men of the Spirit, for 
the Kingdom of God (see 1 Sam. x. 6. xix. 20. Isai. Lxiii. 10. 
Ps. li. 11. Hos. ix. 7); so there grew up a hope of Him who was 
to possess inspiration in its fullest measure (Isai. xi. 2. comp. John 
1. 33. lil. 84), and of a time which was not to see a series of indi- 
vidual prophets endowed with inspiration amid the people, but the 
simultaneous inspiration of the whole people and of all flesh: Joel 
iii. Ezek. xxxvi. 26, 27. This time was not yet arrived, when 
Jesus desired (Luke xii. 49) to kindle the fire, and to baptize 
with fire ; and in this respect the Holy Ghost was not yet: John 
vil. 39. The world too, as such, knew Him not, and received Him 
not: John xiv. 17. But as the first Paraclete, who appeared in 
the flesh, had declared that, after His going to the Father, another 
would come, to perfect the communion with God in those who had 
believed in the first, this was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost.” 

The following sentences from Tholuck’s Commentary may also 
stand here in confirmation of what has been said concerning the 
revival of sounder Theology in Germany. “As St. John must 
have known better than we do, that the operations of the Holy 
Ghost had already been spoken of in the Old Testament, we must 
assume that he restricted the expression here to the Christian Holy 
Spirit, that is, the Holy Spirit of God, so far as He, dwelling in 
man as a subjective principle, appropriates the objective, essential 


NOTE H. 319 


truths of Revelation, and gives them the power of truth in each 
individual mind;” in other words, convinces men of sin, and of 
righteousness, and of judgment. “ This was the consequence of 
Christ’s exaltation and glorification: for it was only when He was 
entirely freed from all the limitations of earth, that He could be- 
come in spirit the indwelling principle of life in His disciples; and 
on the other hand the new life of the disciples could not expand - 
independently and spiritually, until the visible presence of the 
Saviour was taken away from-them.” 

This long, though very imperfect, line of witnesses to the riches 
of meaning, which is to be found in a couple of verses of Scrip- 
ture, may be closed with an extract from Olshausen’s admirable 
Commentary on the New Testament; a translation of which, if 
executed with intelligence and judgment,— with the occasional 
omission of passages referring to transient absurdities of German 
divines, unknown and unworthy of being known in England, and 
with the addition of such notes as may be requisite to explain allu- 
sions in the text, — would be an inestimable benefit to the English 
student, nay, to every thoughtful reader of the Bible. Without 
meaning to disparage the Catena Aurea, which has recently been 
translated by the indefatigable revivers of Patristic Theology, I 
may say that the translation just proposed would be far more use- 
ful to all who desire to apprehend the meaning and spirit of the 
New Testament: and a comparison of the two works would prove, 
that, in one important branch of Theology, notwithstanding all 
manner of divergences and extravagances, slips and falls, way- 
wardness and frowardness, yet, when we compare the nineteenth 
century with the fourth, and the following ones down to the thir- 
teenth, there has certainly been a progress ; a conclusion we should 
hardly have formed concerning the eighteenth from the specimens 
of its exegetical skill contained in the English Family Bible pub- 
lished some five and twenty years ago; and which moreover no 
way infers that the individual theologians are greater, any more 
than every astronomer in these days is greater than Copernicus 
and Kepler. In his remarks on John vii. 39, Olshausen says, 
“ The dvEaoOnvat of the Son is mentioned here, not merely as the 
period, but also as an instrumental and inducing cause of the effu- 
sion of the Spirit. This glorification of Christ (on which Olshau- 
sen has some excellent remarks on xiii. 31) refers of course to His 
humanity, which was spiritualized and celestialized by the power 


320 NOTE H. 


of the indwelling Deity. This process first manifests itself in its 
perfection at the Ascension; after which therefore the fulness of 
the Spirit was first poured out on the Apostles and first believers. — 
Here we have a plain expression of the idea, that the revelation 
of God in man takes place by a continual progress, and is made to 
depend on the gradual perfecting of the bearers and sustainers of 
the Spirit. The Spirit of God fashioned the holy temple of the 
body of the Lord for Himself in the Virgin’s womb, that He might 
dwell there, in a pure, unspotted vessel: but it was only through 
the power of this indwelling Spirit, that the body of our Lord was 
by degrees so glorified, that the highest manifestation of the God- 
head, the Holy Ghost, could flow out from Him over mankind, like 
an all-vivifying, all-purifying river. Along with this operation of 
the Holy Ghost, the power of our Lord’s glorified humanity also 
constantly manifested itself; so that He not only gave His Spirit, 
but also His flesh and blood to His disciples, and fashioned, them 
in all things after Himself, that they became bone of His bone, and 
flesh of His flesh: Eph. v. 30. Phil. iii. 21. Hence we shall be 
better able to define the relation between the efficacy of the Holy 
Spirit before our Lord’s glorification, and that under the New 
Testament. Through His operation, we learn from St. Peter, the 
prophets under the Old Testament were inspired; and the New 
Testament speaks of Him as acting before Christ’s glorification, 
both with reference to John the Baptist, and at the conception of 
_ Jesus. But there is no express mention of the Holy Ghost in the 
Old Testament, except in Ps. li. 11, and Isai. Ixili. 10: and the 
whole Old Testament shows that the idea of the Spirit was only 
dimly latent in the minds of those who were living under that 
prior Revelation. (In the Apocrypha we find the name, IJvevya 
ayloy, in Wisd.i. 5, 9,17.) It might be said indeed, that the whole 
difference between the working of the Holy Ghost under the Old 
and the New Testament consists in this, that under the later Dis- 
pensation He manifests Himself in greater fulness, in more extra- 
ordinary gifts of grace, and more various modes of operation (1 
Cor. xi. 7-11); and lastly that His operation is more abiding, 
while in the Old Testament it is rather fleeting. and occasional. 
Were this so however, the gift under the New Testament would 
not be any thing essentially new, but a higher degree of that under 
the Old. Hence the features just mentioned, though they must 
not be overlooked, are not quite sufficient, but require an impor- 


NOTE H. SLE 


tant complement. So far as the Deity is essentially the Spirit and 
the Holy One, it cannot be denied that the Holy Ghost operated 
in the Old Testament: such expressions too as God spake, the 
Spirit took the prophet, occur often. Moreover, from the eternal 
unity of the Father, Son, and Spirit, in consequence of which no | 
one can work without the others, where we read of God as work- 
ing in the Old Testament, we must also conceive the Holy Spirit - 
as codperating. Nevertheless the usual language of Scripture 
itself, as well as the mutual relations of the Personsof the Trinity, 
justify us in distinctly separating the operation of the Father, the 
Son, and the Spirit, as different Persons in the Divine Being: 
and in this respect we are bound to say, that the working of the 
Holy Ghost begins with the glorification of Jesus, and the effusion 
of the Spirit at the Feast of Pentecost. Hence there is a kind of 
truth in the view, which has often been entertained in the Church, 
concerning different Dispensations of the Father, the Son, and the 
Holy Ghost. The working of the Godhead under the Old Testa- 
ment was that of the Son: that of the Holy Ghost begins with the 
Feast of Pentecost. — One might say, that, down to the glorifica- 
tion of Jesus, the Tvevuce aycov operated as évdca0 eroy, and after 
it as moOgogLxov. The special work of the Holy Ghost is that 
of Regeneration, and the whole creative action of God in the souls 
of men. Hence Regeneration also belongs essentially to the New 
Testament; because under this Dispensation the Holy Ghost first 
manifested His specific power.” 

This extract holds out several temptations to discussion; but I 
must decline them, or this Note will never end. For the same 
reason J must pass over the attempt to explain the distinctive op- 
eration of the Spirit in the Christian Church, and the reasons why 
it could not have place previously, by Conradi, in his Avitik der 
Christlichen Dogmen, published in 1841. For that writer, who is 
a profound and subtile thinker, and seems an earnest-minded and 
pious man, being a disciple of the Hegelian school in philosophy, 
has labored strenuously, in this as in his other works, to reconcile 
his philosophy with his religion, and to exhibit the forms which 
Christian Truth must assume when viewed through the spectacles 
of that philosophy ; a task in which several other able men of the 
same school have lately been engaged, with more or less success, 
sometimes with a grievous sacrifice of Christian Truth, sometimes, 
it may be, at the cost of their philosophical and logical consistency. 


O28 NOTE H. 


Now there is so much that is peculiar in the terminology and dia- 
lectic system of that school, that even a few sentences on such a 
subject as the nature and office of the Spirit would be unintelli- 
gible to persons not familiar with the recent philosophy of Ger- 
many, — that is, to ninety-nine English readers in a hundred, — 
unless they were accompanied with copious explanations. It is 
indeed a common practice with English divines, not excepting 
those who in other respects have maintained a respectable and 
scholarly character, to speak contemptuously and damnatorily of 
German Philosophy and Theology,—even of great writers, of 
whom they have scarcely read a few pages, and not understood 
those few. Such a practice, however, which even natural justice, 
much more Christian love, reprobates and condemns, only makes 
it the more needful not to touch upon such matters, unless one 
can enter into them fully. I will merely remark, that, — while 
the examination of the religious character and tendencies of any 
metaphysical system requires a thoroughly philosophical mind, a 
mind learned, penetrating, clear-sighted, and candid, — even when 
the result of such an examination has been fatal to the system, this 
will nowise prove that many of its disciples may not by a happy 
illogicalness contrive to hold large portions of Christian Truth, 
along with doctrines which, if pushed to their extreme, would mili- 
tate against it. This was the case, for instance, with many of the 
great mystics, from Tauler down to Behmen and Angelus Silesius, 
in whose philosophy there was always a tendency, often a very 
strong one, to Pantheism, yet whose hearts were temples of deep 
and fervent devotion. On the other hand, God forbid we should 
pronounce that all the persons, whose understandings were trained 
in the shallow Materialism of the last century, were aliens in heart 
from the Commonwealth of Israel. It has been seen from the days 
of Balaam downward, that a man may have a hold on the Truth 
intellectually, without its producing any effect on his moral being ; 
and our lot would be miserable indeed, if intellectual error exer- 
cised an absolute sway, and there were no escape from its conse- 
quences, —if the chinks and crevices in our logic only admitted 
the wind and rain, and never the sunshine. | 

We have been traversing a long space, have been threading the 
volumes of many generations, and have heard a number of voices 
from some of the wisest and holiest among the children of men, all 
of them endeavoring, each after his kind, to give utterance and 


NOTE H. Sou 


expansion to the truth set before us in a few short words of Scrip- 
ture. These voices may have seemed discordant and dissonant ; 
for so it is ever with the works of the understanding. Men seek 
out many inventions; and these are apt to jar and clash. The 
only perfect harmony and unison that can be on earth, is in 
prayer. In prayer logical differences vanish, diversities of knowl- 
edge pass away, the contentiousness of dogmas is hushed. They 
who really feel themselves in the presence of God, must feel that 
all the petty distinctions, which at other times may separate them 
from their brethren, are swallowed up in the immensity of the dif- 
ference which separates them from Him, and that, as He is One, 
all who behold Him should be fused into one by His unific pres- 
ence. I will therefore close this note with a translation of a 
beautiful prayer, for the fulfilment of the very promise which 
we have been considering; in which, we may trust, the holy 
men, whose testimony concerning the Spirit we have been exam- 
ining, would gladly have joined.* 

“ O Lord Jesus, holy Jesus, who didst vouchsafe to die for our 
sins, and didst rise again for our justification, I beseech Thee by 
Thy glorious Resurrection, raise me from the grave of all my 
Vices and sins, and grant me daily a part in the first Resurrection, 


* It is found among Anselm’s, as the 19th, and is well suited to the 
troubled circumstances of his life, and to his earnest longings after rest 
and peace. It is also found in the Liber Meditationum, which is published 
among the works of Augustin, but is generally acknowledged not to be 
his, and is supposed on probable grounds by the Benedictine Editors to 
have been composed or compiled, at least a large portion of it, by John, 
Abbot of Fescamp, a contemporary of Anselm’s. This John of Fescamp 
has recently been introduced to modern readers by the master of medieval 
lore in his interesting Essays on the Dark Ages, pp. 314-321. Mr. Maitland 
there gives a letter from him to the Empress Agnes, which appears from 
the Benedictine Introduction to the Liber Meditationum to have been pre- 
fixed to that book; and he says that the book itself, he believes, exists only 
in manuscript.’ One must not readily assume that one has found any 
thing in this field of knowledge, that Mr. Maitland has overlooked: but he 
appears not to have been aware of the reasons for supposing that the Lider 
Meditationum is, or comprises, the book sent by the Abbot to the Empress. 
How far these reasons may avail to prove that the prayer in the text is by 
him, and not by Anselm, I have not the means of determining. If it be by 
the former, we gain an addition to the list of devotional writers. A trans- 
lation of the Liber Meditationum was published at the beginning of the last 
century by Dean Stanhope. 


324 NOTE H. 


that I may truly deserve to receive a part in Thy Resurrection. 
O Thou most swect, most kind, most loving, most dear, most 
precious, most desired, most amiable, most beauteous Saviour, 
Thou has ascended into heaven in the triumph of Thy glory, and 
sittest at the right hand of the Father. O most mighty King, 
draw me upward to Thee, that 1 may run after Thee, after the 
odor of Thine ointments, that I may run and not faint, while Thou 
drawest and leadest me as I run. Draw the mouth of my soul, 
that thirsts after Thee, to the heavenly streams of eternal satiety : 
yea, draw me to Thee, the living Fountain, that according to my 
capacity I may drink, whence I shall ever live, my God, my Life. 
For Thou hast said with Thy holy and blessed mouth, [f any man 
thirst, let him come to Me and drink. O Fountain of Life, grant 
to my thirsty soul that I may ever drink from Thee, that, accord- 
ing to Thy sacred and faithful promise, waters of life may flow 
from my belly. O Fountain of Life, fill my mind with the river 
of Thy pleasures, and make my soul drunk with the sober drunk- 
enness of Thy love; that I may forget whatever is vain and 
earthly, and may keep Thee alone continually in my memory, as 
it is written, Memor fui Dei, et delectatus sum.* 

“ Give me Thy Holy Spirit, signified by those waters, which 
Thou didst promise to give to the thirsty. Grant, I beseech Thee, 
that with my whole desire and with every endeavor I may strive 
thitherward, whither we believe Thee to have ascended on the 
fortieth day after Thy Resurrection; that I may be detained in 
this present misery with my body alone, but may be always with 
Thee in thought and longing, that my heart may be there where 
Thou art, my desirable and incomparable and most lovely 'Treas- 
ure. For in the great deluge of this life, where we are tossed 
about by the storms around us, and no safe haven is to be found, 
no dry spot where the foot of the dove may rest for a while, there 
is no safe peace, no secure rest, everywhere war and strife, every- 
where enemies, without fightings, within fears. And because in 
one part we are of heaven, in the other of earth, the corruptible 
body presseth down the soul. Therefore my mind, my Compan- 
ion and Friend, being weary with the way waxes faint, and lies 
wounded and torn by the vanities it has passed through: it hun- 


* Ps, Ixxvi. 4, corresponding to Ixxvii. 8, in our Version, in which the 
sense is just the reverse: [remembered God, and was troubled. 


NOTE H. 325 


gers and thirsts greatly ; and I have nought to set before it; for I 
am poor and destitute. Do Thou, O Lord my God, who art rich 
in all good, and a most bountiful Dispenser of the banquet of 
heavenly satiety, give meat to Thy weary, collect Thy scattered, 
restore Thy wounded servant. Lo, he stands at the door and 
knocks: I beseech Thee by the bowels of Thy compassion, where- 
with Thou visitedst us as the Dayspring from on high, open the 
hand of Thy mercy to this miserable beggar, and command with a 
Winning condescension that he come to Thee, that he rest in 
Thee, that he may be strengthened by Thee with living, heavenly 
bread; wherewith when he is satisfied, and has recovered his 
strength, he may mount higher, and, borne on the wings of holy 
desires from this valley of tears, may fly to Thy heavenly 
Kingdom. 

“Let my spirit, Lord, I beseech Thee, put forth wings like an 
eagle, and fly, and not faint; let it fly and mount even to the 
beauty of Thy house, to the place where Thine honor dwelleth, 
that there, on the table where the citizens above find refreshment, 
it may be fed with Thy secret things in the place of Thy pasture, 
near the overflowing rivers; that my heart may rest in Thee, O 
my God, my heart, a vast sea, swelling with waves. Thou, who. 
didst command the winds and the sea, and there was a great 
calm, come and walk on the waves of my heart, that every thing 
in me may become calm and serene, while I embrace Thee, my 
only Good, and behold Thee, the sweet Light of my eyes, without 
being blinded by the darkness of my troubled thoughts. Let my 
spirit, Lord, fly beneath the shadow of Thy wings from the 
scorching cares of this world, that, being hidden in Thy refresh- 
ing coolness, it may sing rejoicingly, and say, I will lay me down 
in peace and sleep. 

“ Let my memory, I beseech Thee, O Lord my God, sleep from: 
all things that are under heaven, watching to Thee, as it is writ- 
ten, I sleep, and my heart watches. Let my soul be safe, be 
always secure under the wings of Thy protection, O my God. 
Let it abide in Thee, and be always nourished by Thee. Let it 
behold Thee, when my consciousness forsakes me, and sing Thy 
praises with shouts of joy: and let these Thy sweet gifts be my 
consolation in the mean while amid these whirlwinds, until I come 
to Thee, who art true Peace, where there is no bow or shield or 
sword or war, but the highest and most perfect security, and secure 

28 


326 NOTE I. 


tranquillity, tranquil pleasure, and pleasant happiness, and happy 
eternity, and eternal blessedness, and the blessed vision and 
praises of Thee, world without end. Amen.” 


Note I: _p. 50. 


Andrewes, in his Sermon on our Lord’s words, If ye love Me, 
keep My commandments ; and I will pray the Father ; and He will 
give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever ;— 
the third of those on the Sending of the Holy Ghost, — argues the 
question, “ How shall we love Christ, or keep His commandments, 
that we may receive the Holy Ghost, when, unless we first 
receive, we can neither love Him, nor keep them ? — How saith 
He, Keep, and I will give, when He must give, or we cannot 
keep?” He replies, that to him who hath shall be given, both in 
a higher degree, and in a different kind; an answer sufficient for 
the immediate question, and agreeing in substance with Augus- 
tin’s, from whose 14th Tractate on St. John the words of the 
question are translated: only Augustin, after his fashion, 1s more 
diffuse and rhetorical, and, as is very often the case with him, winds 
round and round and round the point, instead of coming up to it and 
clenching it. “We consider (Andrewes adds), as St. Peter (1. 
iv. 10), the Spirit in His graces, or the graces of the Spirit, as of 
many kinds ;—of many kinds; for our wants and defects are 
many. Not to go out of the Chapter, —in the very words He is 
called the Spirit of Truth ; and that is one kind of grace, to cure 
us of error. In the 26 verse after, the Spirit of Holiness. — And 
here He is termed: the Comforter ; and that is against heaviness 
and trouble of mind. To him that hath Him as the Spirit of 
Truth, which is one grace, He may be promised as the Spirit of 
Holiness, or Comfort, which is another. It is well known, many 
partake Him as the Spirit of Truth in knowledge, which may well 
be promised them (for sure yet they have Him not) as the sancti- 
fying Spirit.* And both these ways may He be had of some, who 


* The meaning of this sentence is much obscured, nay, quite perverted, 
in the late Oxford reprint, by the omission of the marks of parenthesis. 
Andrewes says, that there are many persons, who partake the Spirit of 
Truth in knowledge, and to whom yet the Spirit may be promised as the 
Spirit of Holiness, seeing that they have Him not as such. But it would 


NOTE I. Oat 


are subject to the Apostle’s disease here, heavy and cast down, 
and no cheerful spirit within them. So they were not clean des- 
titute of the Spirit at this promise making, but had Him; and so 


be difficult to make this out from the Oxford text: “It is well known, 
many partake Him as ‘the Spirit of Truth’ in knowledge, which may well 
be promised them, for sure yet they have Him not as the sanctifying 
Spirit’? (p. 155). When thus pointed, the words mean, that the Spirit of 
Truth may well be promised to those who have not the sanctifying Spirit ; 
which being at variance with the whole purport of the passage, I referred 
to the old Folio, and there saw plainly what Andrewes intended to say. I 
know no writer in whom the nicest accuracy in punctuation is so much 
needed to render him intelligible, owing to the parenthetical knottiness of 
his style, in which juxtaposition is a very unsafe criterion of continuity. 
He himself seems to have attended to it carefully in his manuscripts, if we 
may judge from the curious system followed in the old editions, —a sys- 
tem which may indeed be simplified with advantage ; only at every 
change one should look out sharply lest the meaning be misrepresented or 
obscured. In the next line the Oxford text gives, “‘ the Apostle’s disease,” 
as ifit were the disease of some one Apostle, not of the whole body. This is 
one of a class of mistakes common in the reprints of our older writers, aris- 
ing from the ignorance which prevails concerning the history of our gram- 
mar. Few persons are distinctly aware that the practice of denoting the 
genitive singular by an apostrophe was not common, except in certain 
peculiar words, till the latter part of the seventeenth century ; or that the 
absurd and unmeaning mark, which we now subjoin to denote the genitive 
plural, only got into vogue about the middle of the eighteenth. If our 
editors bore this in mind, they would feel called upon to exercise a little 
discrimination, when they come to an ambiguous form. Ten lines back, 
where the edition of 1641 has “in the very words,’ the Oxford gives “in 
the very next words.’’ The insertion of next may rest upon authority ; 
but it looks like an interpolation: the shorter expression is more in 
Andrewes manner. 

Ido not make these remarks censoriously. In this age of speed and 
slovenliness, — of water colors and lithography and photography, — when 
everybody has so many things to do, that nobody can do any thing, and the 
only way of keeping the world’s wheels in motion is to make matter do the 
work of mind,—and when that patient and unwearible love of study, 
which animated men in former generations, and which thought no labor 
too great to be spent even on minute questions of grammar and ortho 
graphy, if it did but lead to a satisfactory result, is no longer to be found, 
owing to the blighting system of using emulation, instead of the love of 
knowledge, as the main instrument of education, — the reprint of Andrewes 
is certainly among the more creditable samples of its class. But now that 
the most valuable portions of our early literature are gaining circulation in 
modern types in the remotest quarters of the globe, where people will have 


328 NOTE I. 


well might love Him, and in some sort keep His commandments, 
and yet remain capable of the promise of a Comforter for all 
that.” 

Now it is doubtless quite true that they, in whom the Spirit 
dwells, and who submit to his governance, will be led by Him 
from one grace to another, and that, when new emergencies and 
difficulties arise, new powers to meet them will be unfolded in 
their souls. Only Andrewes, from the character of his mind, as 
well as from the philosophy in which he had been trained, was 
disposed to look at the work of the Spirit rather as mechanical, 
than as dynamical or drganical, agreeing herein with the great 
body of theologians, who have been readier to conceive that the 
Spirit brings some fresh gift on every fresh occasion, than that 
He is a principle of life abiding in the soul, swaying its desires, 
exalting and purifying its affections, strengthening its faculties, 
and turning them to their appropriate purpose.* In so many 
regions of thought do we find counterparts to the opposite views, 


no means of referring to the original text, it is desirable that our editors 
should more than ever feel that laborious accuracy in the least things is an 
indispensable part of their duty. 

* As this sheet is passing through the press, I have met with a like remark 
referring to a different part of the work of the Spirit, but expressed almost in 
the same words, by Ackermann, one of the ablest among the rising theolo- 
gians of Germany, in an elaborate and in many respects very valuable Dis- 
sertation on the meaning of the words mvetuo, yous, and the German Geist, 
published in the Theologische Studien und Kritiken for 1839. ‘“ Theologians 
have not unfrequently been guilty of a gross error with regard to the bibli- 
cal idea of inspiration, from looking upon it as mechanical, instead of dy- 
namical. From the passages cited (Gen. xii. 38, Job. xxxii. 8, Isai. xi. 2, 
Matth. x. 20, Luke ii. 40, John xiv. 17, 26, xvi. 18, Rom. vii. 16, 1 Cor. il. 
10, xii. 8, Gal. iv. 6, 2 Pet. i. 21) it is sufficiently evident that the Bible 
speaks of the working of the Spirit of God as dynamical. Hence theo- 
logians ought never to have adopted or encoura ged the crude notion, that 
persons under inspiration were like so many drawers, wherein the Holy 
Ghost put such and such things, which they then took out as something 
ready made, and laid before the world ; so that their recipiency with refer- 
ence to the Spirit inspiring them was like that of a letter box. Whereas 
inspiration, according to the Bible, is to be regarded as a vivifying and ani- 
mating operation on the spiritual faculty in man, by which its energy and 
capacity are extraordinarily heightened, so that his powers of internal per- 
ception discern things spread out before them clearly and distinctly, 
which at other times lay beyond his range of vision, and were dark and 
hidden.’’ p. 890. 


ee A. 


NOTE I. 329 


which regard light, the one as a composite aggregate, the other as 
a plastic and multiform unit. Besides it is a very inadequate con- 
ception of the change which was to be effected in the Apostles by 
the Comforter, — and which, we know from the Book of Acts, was 
accomplished within a few days of the Ascension, — to speak of 
them as having Him already as the Spirit of Truth, and as the 
Spirit of Holiness, and so needing Him only as the Spirit of Com- 
fort. Andrewes did not mean this, though his words would seem 
to imply something of the sort. For all our Lord’s expressions 
about the sending of the Comforter plainly declare that His pre- 
sence was to be something entirely new, and the like of which 
had not yet been seen upon earth; that it depended in some mys- 
terious manner on His own death and resurrection, and was to be 
totally different from any spiritual influences which the Apostles 
had till then received; in a word, that it was to be the great dis- 
tinctive privilege of His Church. Such emphatical words as I 
will send you another Comforter, and the other similar expressions, 
are far more than a promise that One, who was dwelling in them 
already, should show forth His power in a new way, under this 
fresh affliction. So too those words of St. John, which formed the 
subject of the last Note, certify us that the Apostles cannot at 
this time have received the Spirit, in that sense in which His gifts 
were to be the peculiar blessing of the Christian Dispensation. 

If we examine the representation of the conduct of the Apos- 
tles during their Lord’s life, as set before us in the four Gospels, — 
if we consider how weak their faith was, how easily it was troub- 
led by doubts and fears, which the reiterated proofs of His divine 
power could not allay, —how this its feebleness hampered and 
hindered them in the exercise of the gifts with which he had 
endowed them,—how carnal their wishes were still, set upon 
earthly prizes, incapable of understanding the pure glory of the 
Kingdom of Heaven, nay, disturbing them with jealousies and 
rivalries, — and further how slow their minds were to receive the 
heavenly light of their Master’s teaching,—how unable they 
were, even on that last evening, to apprehend the spiritual mean- 
ing of His words,—we cannot but recognize, when we turn to 
the Book of Acts, that a total change had been wrought in them, 
a change exactly coinciding with the effects which they had been 
promised, would be produced by the Comforter ; wherefore this 
change may, with the amplest reason, be regarded as being, in all 

28 * 


330 NOTE I. 


_ its parts, the fulfilment of that promise. Moreover, as according 
to the terms of the promise, the Comforter was to abide with the 
Church for ever, the moral powers and spiritual graces, which the 
Apostles then received, have been granted ever since to believers 
in Christ, after the measure of their faith. This change in the 
Apostles gives us a complete explanation and confirmation of St. 
John’s saying, that the Spirit was not given until Jesus was glori- 
fied: which saying seems incompatible with the notion that the 
Apostles had received any of the distinctively Christian gifts of 
the Spirit, at all events before the Resurrection. Now divine 
truth, we may feel sure, is always consistent with itself, although, 
according to the form which ideas ever put on, when they are 
brought down into the region of the reflective understanding, it will 
perpetually appear to involve contradictions. Hence we must 
not doubt that, if there are any passages in Scripture, which seem 
repugnant to the right interpretation of this saying in St. John, 
such repugnance will be removed by a more careful investigation. 

For instance, the very text, in preaching on which Andrewes 
introduces the passage just cited, and which, according to his in- 
terpretation, would imply that the Apostles had already received 
some of the peculiar gifts of the Spirit, — our Lord’s words, Jf ye 
love Me, keep My commandments: and I will pray the Father ; and 
He will give you another Comforter, — cannot be at variance with 
the declaration that the Spirit was not given till after Jesus was 
glorified. Now at first sight these words seem thoroughly to con- 
firm that declaration, inasmuch as they palpably refer to what was 
to take place after the Resurrection. The inconsistency is merely 
a matter of inference, on the ground that the disciples could not 
love Jesus, or keep His commandments, except through the influ- 
ence of the Spirit. But the love and obedience here spoken of 
are not that pure and perfect love, and that perfect obedience, 
which the Spirit desires to produce in the heart of every believer, 
and which can in no respect be produced, save by His immediate 
power. The love of the disciples at that time, was weak, frail, 
human love, for Him who had been their best Friend, their wisest 
Teacher, their greatest Benefactor: and the only obedience which 
could as yet be expected from them, was that which such grateful 
and reverential love may beget even in the natural man, under 
circumstances fitted to foster the better part of his nature. With- 
out entering into the tangled argument on the character and 


Oe ee ee ee 


os 


« we ies i a et ars 


NOTE I. | Sod 


extent of prevenient grace, we may assume, what is implied in 
every part of the New Testament, that the divine aid which pre- 
cedes faith, in its lower sense, is wholly distinct from that special 
gift of the Spirit, which is vouchsafed to believers, and to them 
only. 
This distinction is not sufficiently prominent in the comment of 


Aquinas on this passage. ‘ Does (he asks) the obedience of be- - 


lievers and their love to Christ prepare them for the Spirit? It 
seems not: because the love wherewith we love God is bestowed 
by the Holy Spirit. Rom. v. 5. The love of God is shed abroad 
in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unio us. Moreover 
obedience itself is excited in us by the Holy Spirit. Rom. vin. 
14. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the sons 
of God.’ These verses however refer to a very different love 
and obedience from that required by our Lord in St. John, a love 
and obedience proceeding, not from prevenient Grace, but from 
the full gift of the Spirit. “ Again some may say (he adds) that 
by our love to the Son we merit the gift of the Holy Spirit, by 
which, when obtained, we love the Father. But this is inconsis- 
tent, because the love of the Father and of the Son is the same.” 
But the love which Jesus here requires, was that which they 
could not but feel toward Him in His Humanity, not in His 
Deity. “And therefore it must be remarked on the other hand, 
that this peculiarity is found in the gifts of God; viz.: that he 
who uses well a gift bestowed upon him is thereby entitled to 
receive more grace and a richer blessing ; while whoever makes a 
bad use.of it, even that which he receives shall be taken from him. 
For, as we read in Matt. xxv, the talent was taken away from the 
slothful servant, and given to him who had received five. Thus, 
also, it is concerning the gift of the Holy Spirit. For no one is 
able to love God unless he has the Holy Spirit. Nor do we anti- 
cipate the grace of God; but it makes the first advances to us. 
For He first loved us, as is said in 1 John, iv. 10. And therefore 
we must say, that the Apostles at first indeed received the Holy 
Spirit, that they might love God and obey His commands : but it 
was indispensable, in order to their receiving the Holy Spirit in 
still greater measure, that they should well employ, by love and obe- 
dience, the gift already received. And in accordance with this is 


the sentiment: If ye love Me, by the aid of the Holy Spirit ; 


which ye have, and obey My commands, ye shall receive the 


PI me 


Peed Ped 


one NOTE I. 


Holy Spirit, which ye already possess in greater measure.” . These . 
words, it is plain, are very far from expressing the difference, — 
implied in our Lord’s words, between the gift of the Spirit which 
the disciples were to receive in answer to His prayer, and that 
which they already had. But thus it is for ever in the Schoolmen, 
that, while they are exceedingly ingenious in devising all manner 
of artificial and arbitrary distinctions, those which actually exist 
they often overlook. 

There is more uncertainty with regard to the meaning of the 
last words in the next verse: Zhe Spirit of Truth, whom the world 
cannot receive, because it»seeth Him not, nor knoweth Him: but ye 
know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. What 
rich treasures of knowledge are contained in this verse concerning 
the whole relation between man and God, nay, between man and 
all heavenly truth! But I merely cite it here for the light which 
the last words seem to afford as to the previous condition of the 
Apostles. In the text to this Note I have interpreted them, with- 
out consulting the expositions given by others, as though the dif- 
ference of tense were meant to denote a difference of time, and 
as though the former clause, — for He dwelleth with you, — referred 
to that acquaintance with the Spirit which the Apostles had already 
enjoyed, —the latter clause, and shall be in you, to that higher 


. gift which was to be granted to them on the day of Pentecost. A 


like explanation, I find, is proposed by Lampe. “ Witness is here 
borne to the disciples, that they possess a better temper than the 
world, because they know the Spirit. Not as yet indeed had the 
excellence of the Holy Spirit and the nature of His Economy and 
operations become fully known to the Apostles. Nevertheless they 
had already so far become acquainted with the Spirit, that their 
knowledge surpassed the revelations of flesh and blood (Matt. xvi. 
17), as well as the knowledge of John’s disciples, Acts xix. 1.— 
For they knew the divinity of miracles, and the truth of Christ’s 
doctrine, and the excellency of His person. Which could not have 
been, unless at the same time they tacitly believed Him to be that 
Prophet,-who had been promised and was to be anointed by the 
richest measure of the Spirit. Is. xi. 2, ]xi. 1, 2, 3, Ps.xlv.8. There- 
fore, just as in verse 7, He had attributed to His disciples a knowl- 
edge of the Father, so now He attributes to them a knowledge of 
the Spirit, imperfect indeed, but still having a true basis and 
commencement. The origin of this condition of mind He indicates 


NOTE I. 308 


in the words: for He dwelleth with you. Thus interpreters gener- 
ally understand the words, and the sense is appropriate. They 
had now received the first fruits of the Spirit. He had drawn 
them by an effectual calling, that they might follow Christ with 
the denial of self. The same Spirit constantly abode with them in 
their many temptations, so that, although many others strayed away 
from Jesus, they remained faithful. To this Spirit abiding with 
them should be ascribed all the Znowledge which the disciples pos- 
sessed. For spiritual things cannot be known except by the Spirit.” 

“ Nevertheless (he continues) it would not be absurd to render 
the Orv here by wherefore, or on account of which, a sense which is 
not unusual in the New Testament. Compare Luke vii. 47, and 
above John viii. 44. And then the promise just now given is 
repeated in these words, and it is declared, that the mansion, which 
Jesus promised, was to be confidently expected by them, because 
they had already actually begun to possess spiritual knowledge. 
I confess that I rather prefer this to the received version.” 

By this latter explanation both clauses are referred to the pro- 
mised effusion of the Spirit; and tlius, so far as I can find, has the 
passage been understood by the great body of divines from the 
earliest times to the present. Indecd the Vulgate, in the received 
edition, renders all the three verbs in the future: But ye shall 
know Him; because He will remain with you, and shall be in you. 
This too is the reading in the old Latin translation of the Treatise 
of Athanasius De Trinitate ef Spiritu Sancio, § 7,and in Augustin’s 
74th Tractate on St. John, who explains the words thus. “ He will 
be in them that He may dwell there; not He will dwell in them 
that He may be there: for one must be in a place before he can 
abide there. But lest they might think, because He said He shall 
dwell with you, that He meant in the same manner as a guest is 
accustomed to abide visibly with his friend, He explains what He 
means, by adding shall be in you. His appearance to us, therefore, 
is not a visible one. Nor indeed could we have a proper knowl- 
edge of Him if He were not in us. For thus our own conscience 
is seen by us within ourselves; while we can see the face of 
another, we cannot see our own; but, on the other hand, we see 
our own conscience while we cannot see that of another man. 
Now conscience never exists, except in us: but the Holy Spirit is 
able to exist without us: for He is bestowed in order that He 
may be also in us. But we cannot see and know Him, as He 


334 NOTE I. 


should be seen and known, unless He be in us.” The translation 
in the Vulgate is corrected by Erasmus, who gives, But ye know 
Him, for He remaineth with you, and shall be in you. Beza, who 
renders the passage, Ye know Him, for He dwelleth with you and 
shall be within you, says in his note: “dwelleth, wéves.— To 
remain, in this passage means the same as to take for a resting 
place and home ; in which sense God is everywhere said to dwell 
with his children, even €vegyoupevog, (working) in them, which 
idea underlies these words, and He shall be in you.” Hammond, 
understanding Ore as inferential, gives a poor paraphrase of the 
passage: But by you, I suppose, and all true disciples of Mine He 
is highly valued ; therefore He shall abide with (not only come to) 
you, He shall for ever continue among you. How strangely the 
Platonic dozer, I suppose, so becoming in the philosopher who 
had discovered his own ignorance, grates on our ears, when 
ascribed to Him in whom the fulness of all knowledge dwelt ! 
Grotius, taking Ote in the same sense, says, “ The foregoing 
words seem to indicate, that the Spirit, as is here assumed, first 
becomes known, and then enters into the man: pévée signifies He 
inhabits — the present for the proximate future.” On the first point 
Calvin of course is far truer: “ The words of Christ show us that 
we can receive no knowledge of the Holy Spirit through merely 
human perception, but that He can be known only by the expe- 
rience of faith. The world, he says, has no capacity to receive the 
Spirit, because it knoweth Him not, but ye know Him, for He dwell- 
eth with you. The Spirit then, suffers Himself to be known, 
only by taking up His abode in us; otherwise He is unknown 
and incomprehensible.” This exposition seems nearly to coin- 
cide with that given in the Sermon. Kuinoel on the other 
hand says, “ The present tenses yerwoxeté, evel, have the sense 
of futures, which indeed the added éoraz shows:” and he is fol- 
lowed by Tittmann, and by Klee in his Commentary on St. John: 
Yet one would rather think that this very use of different tenses 
was meant to denote a difference of time ; whereas, had all the 
verbs been in the present, they might with more likelihood have 
been deemed to signify a proximate future. 

Luecke, in his first edition, makes the same remark, “that 
yLVOOKE té, as well as uévél, must be taken as futures, on account 
of €orae just after, and because the disciples did not yet know, 


* 


a ee ee ee ee eS ee 


NOTE I. aoe" 


and had not received the Spirit.” Inghis later editions, he has 
adopted Lachmann’s reading, zai év Upiy €o7 ty, instead of éoreat, 
—and says in the last, “ Is Lv WOKE té to be considered a future, 
as the Vulgate in some manuscripts has cognoscetis 2 The words 
Owoee and ég9wrt7yow just before render this probable. Then 
however we should have to read pevél, answering to éotas, if 
this be right. But it is evident that EOTAL, is a correction for 
éotuv, which Lachmann has restored; and the Vulgate has 
mancbit, though the present évée is sufficiently certain.* Meyer 
rightly regards the presence as indefinite. Jesus contrasts the 
character of the xoon0¢ with that of his disciples. The unbe- 
lieving world is unable to receive and to know the Spirit; the 
disciples, in their faith, have the capacity to receive and to know 
Him. But the reception as well as the knowledge are to be 
future: see vii. 39. The difference between TAO Dury evel and 
év vv éotiv is, that the former refers rather to the idea of the 
TIaoaxdn10S, who is to be with them, the latter to that of the 
TIvevpc, who is to be in them. The Paraclete abides with them, 
because, as the Spirit, He isin them. Thus they can know Him 
from their own immediate experience. ‘The causal ore implies 
that the Spirit of Truth cannot be known by any one, except 
through his personal possession and experience.” 

Olshausen’s explanation coincides pretty nearly with Luecke’s ; 
only he has a deeper intuition of spiritual truth, his mind being of 
the family of Augustin’s. “The Saviour here promises a new, 
higher, and till then unknown Principle, the TIvevpa tig edn- 
eiag. This expression implies no less that the Spirit produces 
the truth in those who receive Him, than that He Himself is the 
Truth. As God Himself is the Truth, and the Son, as the 
Revealer of the unseen Father, so the Spirit also, the highest 


. * BI] : ° 
* As the Alexandrian manuscript reads oto, we must be guided, in 
adopting or rejecting it, by internal evidence. Luecke’s assertion, that 
toto is evidently a correction, is of no force, as is often the case with 


arguments stated thus summarily. On the contrary, according to the pri- 
mary maxims of conjectural criticism, a scribe, finding two verbs united 


by a xa, was much likelier to assimilate them, had they been in different 
tenses, than to introduce a difference when they were in the same tense. 


336 NOTE I. 


manifestation of the Godhead, is the Truth in Himself, and only 
imparts the truth, in that He imparts Himself. * 4dr Devo. here 
+s not the intellectual truth of reflection, but that absolute 
Truth which is Life itself. Hence, by the communication of this 
Truth, all the MaTALOTHS of our natural, sinful life is overcome. 
This Spirit is therefore described as continually abiding (109. 
vue mevEt), and as dwelling in the innermost centre of our being 
(ev vty Eoral). Tivmoxete avro is not merely a future, 2 you 
will know Him, but you know Him already: Jesus could appeal to 
the experience of the disciples, although they had not yet 
received the Spirit, because they had already felt His incipient 
workings in their hearts, at occasional blessed hours of their inter- 
course with their Lord. The side opposed to the disciples is the 
%06u0¢, whereby we are here to understand the hearts of men, 
while they continue in their natural state: these cannot receive 
Him, because they are unable to see Him and to know Him. Thus 
the latter is a condition of the former; whereas one might have sup~ 
posed that conversely the reception must pr ecede the knowledge. 
Of the deepest form of knowledge this is quite true: but a prelimi+ 
nary knowledge is also requisite for the reception of the Spirit; 
and this awakens the slumbering desire in our heart. Even as an 
eye, when shut close, cannot feel the beauty of light, so the world. 
cannot feel the blessing of the Spirit, until that desire, which is. 
the condition of receiving Him, js kindled within it.” 

These remarks are very just; but they are perfectly cangeiae 
with the explanation proposed in the Sermon: and notwithstand- 
ing the mass of authority the other way, that explanation seems to 
me the simplest, and to put the least force upon the words. To 
call VLU CIOKELE a present indefinite, with Luecke and Meyer, is 
scarcely allowable, if we take it as referring to a definite future 
event, or to a state which was to rise out of such an event. But 
if we make a distinction between the outward and the inward pres- 
ence of the Spirit, and suppose that the Apostles as yet had only 
enjoyed the former, recognizing His power in a measure as man- 
ifested in the life and discourse of their Lord, and being so far 
enlightened by Him as to discern the divine character of that 
power, then the promise of the higher gift to them would be in 
full conformity with that principle, which runs through the whole 
Scripture, as it does through all the dispensations of life, that to 


NOTE I. 337 


him who has shall be given. The difficulties which have often 
been felt, and which have occasioned interminable controversies, 
concerning the priority of the outward or the inward act, might 
be lessened if we were to meditate on the facts presented to us by 
all the operations of life; how in all there is a combination of two 
coordinate elements ; how, for instance, in perception there is a 
reciprocal action of the object and the percipient, which must be 
consentaneous, admitting of no priority, no exclusive causation, 
on one side or the other; although even here a like controversy 
has started up, and one psychological school ascribes all primary 
causative power to the objects of knowledge, another to the mind 
that knows. At the same time both the object of knowledge and 
the subject imply a prior Cause, whereby they have been set in 
this state of reciprocal action, whereby the perceiver has been 
endowed with his power of perceiving, and the object has been 
fitted for acting upon his perceptions. In like manner the com- 
mon processes of the mind might greatly help us to understand 
how they, who do not perceive and know, cannot receive. More- 
over the state which I have supposed to be here represented as 
that of the Apostles, at the time when Christ promised to send 
the Comforter to them, is a very common one in every age of the 
Church, and perhaps was never commoner than in these days. 
There are numbers of persons, with regard to whom one cannot 
assert, that the Spirit has so taken possession of their souls, as to 
be the Guide and Ruler of their thoughts and feelings, and to 
lead them to a full recognition of the Saviour and His atonement, 
but who take pleasure, more or less; in spiritual conversation, in 
the study of the Bible and other godly books, and in religious 
exercises and services. Of such persons we may say, that. they 
know the Spirit, because He dwelleth with them: they recognize 
Him in His operations, as manifested in the ordinances of the: 
Church, or in the lives and words of those whom He has sanctified: 
and enlightened! and we may cherish a trustful hope, if those 
feelings have life and reality, that He, whom they have known 
when He was dwelling with them, will in due time be in them. 

An additional proof that the disciples cannot as yet have 
received the Spirit of Truth, seems to lie in our Lord’s words in 
xv. 26, and xvi. 13, where He promises that He will send the 
Spirit of Truth to them, and speaks of the time when the Spirit 
of Truth shall be come. Indeed all their remarks and questions 

29 


308 NOTE I. 


on this last evening, their doubts and distrust afterward, St. John’s 
express declaration (xx. 9) that as yet even He and Peter knew 
not the Scripture, that Jesus was to rise again from the dead, — the 
dulness and slowness of heart to believe all that the Prophets had 
spoken, with which Jesus reproaches the two disciples on their 
way to Emmaus, and which was shared more or less by the rest, 
— certify us that the Spirit of Truth was still to come. It is true, 
Peter had made that confession, of which Jesus pronounced that 
++ had not been revealed to him by flesh and blood but by Tis 
Father in heaven. Yet, wonderful as that confession was, coming 
from the poor fisherman, and declaring that He, who had not 
where to lay His head, was the Christ, the Son of the living God, 
how far did it fall short of that acknowledgment that Jesus 
Christ is the Lord,—of that recognition of His mediatorial 
power and office, and of the atoning efficacy of His incarnation 
and death, — which is the essential work of the Spirit, and which 
cannot spring from any other source ! If proof of this were need- 
ful, it may be found in Peter’s attempt, which is recorded immedi- 
ately after, to dissuade his Master from encountering the very suf- 
ferings whereby His mediatorial office was to be fulfilled. 

As to the promise in Matt. x. 20, Mark xii. 11, Luke xu. 12, 
that the Spirit shall teach the disciples what they are to say, 
when they are brought before magistrates for their Master’s sake, 
the context in St. Matthew shows that this does not refer immedi- 
ately to their first mission during our Lord’s life, when we have 
no record of their having had to endure such persecution, but to 
the period subsequent to the day of Pentecost, when the persecu- 
tions, by which the Church was to be strengthened and purified, 
commenced. 

Into the inquiry as to the nature of the gift, which Jesus bestows 
on the Apostles in John xx. 22, and the relation between that gift 
and those which were bestowed on the day of Pentecost, I need 
not enter here, seeing that at all events that gift was subsequent 
to the Resurrection, and must be regarded as the initial fulfilment 
of the promise that He would send the Comforter to abide in them. 
Augustin asks several times over, why Christ gave the Spirit to 
the Apostles on two distinct occasions, namely, on the evening 
after the Resurrection, and on the day of Pentecost; and he hasa 
favorite solution for this difficulty; which solution he brings for- 
ward in his 75th Tractate on St. John, in his Treatise on the Trin- 


NOTE I. 339 


ity (xv. 46), and in his 265th Sermon; where he introduces it 
with a beautiful acknowledgment and apology for his ignorance. 
The solution however is no solution at all: it does not even touch 
the question to be solved, but looks entirely away from it into the 
region of fanciful numerical analogies. “I suppose, (he says,) I 
merely suppose, that the Holy Spirit was thus twice given, just as 
two injunctions to love Christ were committed to them.— One 
love, and two injunctions: one Spirit, and two gifts.’ In an 
earlier work, Contra Epistolam Manichaei (§ 11.), he finds out 
another reason of the same class, as indeed such reasons may easily 
be found in abundance: “On account of His double glorifica- 
tion, as man and as God, the Holy Spirit was also twice given: 
once after He rose from the dead, when He breathed upon the 
face of His disciples, saying: Receive the Holy Spirit. And again, 
after He ascended on high, ten days having passed, which number 
signifies perfection; since to the septenary (seventh) number, in 
which the world was made, is added the Trinity of the Maker. 
Concerning which matters there has been much pious and rever- 
ent discussion among the spiritually minded.” This is a specimen, 
and far from an unfavorable one, of the fantastical trifling which 
we find perpetually in the exegetical writings of the Fathers, and 
which their worshippers now-a-days propound to us as deep truths; 
the reaction from the dry prosaic spirit of the last century having 
produced a craving for all manner of extravagant follies, while the 
great ambition of many among the disciples of the new school in 
our theology seems to be, that this shall be signalized as the Age 
of Irrationalism. Happy though it has been for our divinity in 
some respects, that we have returned of late with greater rever- 
ence to the works of the Fathers, the evil effects of this change 
will be greater than its benefits, unless we apply that rule to them, 
which we are enjoined to apply to every thing human, of proving 
all things, and only holding fast to that which is good. Let us hold 
fast to that which they derived from the wisdom and spirit of 
Christ; and let us reject what they derived from the spirit of the 
world, and from the fleeting fashions of their, own age. Among 
the qualities which they draw from this source, is their fondness 
for allegories and for numerical analogies. It would have been 
deemed profound in those days to say, that the reason a man has 
two eyes is, that there is a sun and a moon in the sky, — their not 
being copresent would not have disturbed the discoverer of such 


340 NOTE J. 


a grand analogy between the microcosm and the macrocosm ;— 
or that he has one neck, because the tower of Babel was one; or 
that he has five fingers, because there are five strings to the lyre, 
or five acts toa drama; or that the hairs of his head are innu- 
merable, because the grains of sand on the sea-shore are so. The 
striking thing in the passages quoted from Augustin is, not that 
the explanation is a bad one, but that it implies an ignorance of 
what an explanation is, and of the method in which we are to attain 
to it; and the same thing we find perpetually, as well in the Fa- 
thers, as in the contemporary grammarians and rhetoricians. For 
jt was an age when people had almost lost the feeling and the per- 
ception of reality. The spirit of the old world was all but extinct ; 
the spirit of Christendom was growing up, and had not yet taken 
possession of the mind of man. It was an age of bloated bodies, 
and spectral souls. Men could not lay hold on any thing ; they 
could not look any thing in the face. They took pomp and pa- 
geantry for greatness, lust for pleasure, rhetoric for eloquence, 
similitude in form for affinity and identity. Instead of grafting 
fresh slips from the Tree of Knowledge, they contented themselves 
with picking up the dead leaves. As no man can ever keep en- 
tirely free from the contagion of his age, we find more or less of 
these absurdities in the Fathers also. But in them the life of 
Christendom was germinating: in some of them, above all in Au- 
gustin, it was pushing forth vigorously. By this we may be fed 
and edified: only let us beware of taking the husk for the kernel, 
of picking up the hollow nuts, instead of plucking the sound ones. 


Note J: p. 55. 


Tauler, in his Sermons on our text, takes occasion to enforce 
his mystical view of Christianity, applying our Lord’s words to the 
necessity of our being entirely delivered from the bondage of the 
creature, that we may enjoy the beatitude of a perfect union with 
God. There is such deep wisdom and beauty in his exposition, 
that I will quote a considerable part of it. Many readers will per- 
haps be surprised, on these and on other accounts, to find that 
there was so much of truth in the Theology of the fourteenth cen- 
tury: and even this passage will enable us to understand how 
Luther came to feel such a love and admiration for Tauler, who 


aa cemind 


NOTE J. S41 


seems to have exercised more influence, than almost any divine 
except Augustin, in forming the mind of the great Reformer.* 

“What (he says) is meant by Christ’s going away from us? 
Nothing else than our destitution, hopelessness, and helplessness, 
that we are heavy and slow in all good things, and cold and dark ; 
for then Christ is gone from us. If persons who are in this state, 
render it useful and fruitful for themselves, this would be a truly - 
profitable, noble, blessed, and divine thing for them. Let a man 
be thoroughly in this state, and keep himself calm withal, to him 
all variety will he fused into unity; and he will have joy in sor- 
row, and be patient under reproach, in constant peace amid war 
and trouble ; and all bitterness will to him become true sweetness. — 

‘‘Now, children, seeing that the Holy Ghost could not come to 
these dear disciples of the Lord, unless Christ went away from 
them, it is reasonable that we should look what we take in hand: 
therefore leave all things for God’s sake; and God will assuredly 
be given to you in all things. Do this with diligence, and with a 
stedfast cleaving to the truth; and you will receive a wonderful 
reward from God in this present time. — 

“ Observe how high, and in what way, man must be carried up, 
to reach the state of his highest blessedness: for this can only be 
through a real abandonment of those things, which are especially 
pleasant and lovely to him and his nature. To all these he must 
wholly die, and must let them go, however good and holy and 
spiritual and precious he may deem them. For if it was necessary 
that Christ’s disciples should be deprived of His lovely, holy, gra- 
cious humanity, to be fitted for receiving the Holy Ghost, no man, 
it is certain, can be a recipient of divine grace, whose heart is pos- 
sessed by any creature. — . 

“ Sinful persons, or open sinners, are hindered by the creature, 
in that they make use thereof against God, according to their own 
will. ‘These people go astray in God’s way. David says, Cursed 


* It is interesting to find Luther writing thus to Spalatin in December, 
1516, that is, more than ten months before the publication of his celebrated 
Theses, at a time when he entertained no thought of the contest he was to 
engage in. “Si te delectat puram, solidam, antiquae simillimam theolo- 
giam legere, in Germanica lingua effusam, sermones Johannis Tauleri, prae- 
dicatoriae professionis, tibi comparare potes. —Neque enim ego vel in 
Latina, vel in nostra lingua theologiam vidi salubriorem et cum Kvangelio 
consonantiorem. Gusta ergo, et vide, quam suavis est Dominus, ubi prius 
gustaris et videris quam amarum est quicquid nos sumus.” 

29 * 


342 NOTE J. 


are they who err in God’s way (Ps. exix. 21), that is, in the crea- 
ture. There are also sundry good folks, who spend too much care 
upon the necessaries of this life, or look too much for pleasure to 
outward things. Against these Christ says, He who loves his life 
shall lose it; that is, carnal love, he who holds this too dear, loses 
his life; and he who hates his life, shall receive everlasting life: that 
is, they who resist their disorderly lusts and desires, and do not 
follow them. 

“ Another hindrance hampers good people in true spirituality, 
through the misuse of the seven sacraments. He who dwells with 
pleasure on the sign of a holy Sacrament, does not get to the in- 
ward truth; for the sacraments all lead to the pure truth. Mar- 
riage is a sign of the union of the divine and human nature, and 
also of the union of the soul with God: but he who would stop at 
the sign alone, is hindered by his outward senses from reaching 
the eternal fruth; for this is not a true marriage. There are also 
some men who make too much of repentance and confession, and 
cleave to the sign, and do not strive to reach the pure truth. 
Against these Christ says, He who is washed needeth not save to 
wash his feet: that is, he who has once been washed with a hearty 
repentance and sincere confession, needs nothing more than that 
he confess his daily sins, and not his old sins, which he has already 
repented of and confessed: but he must wash his feet, that is, his 
desires and conscience, these he must purify from his daily sins. 
Moreover many good men, by spending too much anxiety on out- 
ward gestures toward the sacred Body of our Lord, hinder them- 
selves in divers ways, so that they cannot receive Him spiritually, 
and enter inwardly into the truth; for this is a desire after a real 
union, and not the appearance merely. Hence they do not receive 
the sacrament worthily ; for all sacraments are the signs of spir- 
itual truth. — 

“ Again there are some, aye, many people, who do not rightly 
worship the Father in the truth. For so soon as a man prays to God 
for any creature, he prays for his own harm: for, since a creature 
is a creature, it bears its own bitterness and disquiet, pain and 
evil about it: therefore such people meet their deserts when they 
have trouble and bitterness; for they have prayed for it. He 
who seeks God, if he seeks any thing beside God, will not find 
Him: but he who seeks God alone in the truth, will find Him, and 
all that God can give, with Him. 


7 ee 


eee eee 


NOTE J. 343 


“ Acain, many good people hinder themselves in their perfec- 
tion by this, that they look solely to the Humanity of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, and that they give themselves too much to visions. 
They cherish the images of outward things in their minds, whether 
it be angels or men, or the Humanity of Christ, and believe what 
they are told, when they hear that they are especially favored, 
or of other men’s faults or virtues, or hear that God purposes to 
do something by their means. Herein they are often deceived: 
for God never does any thing through any creature, but only 
through His own pure goodness. And yet He said to His dis- 
ciples, Jt is good for you that I go away. Thus to them that wish 
to be His disciples in high perfection, His Humanity is a hin- 
drance, if they fix upon it and cleave to it with fondness. For 
they should follow God in all His ways; therefore His Humanity 
should lead them further to His Deity. For Christ said, J am the 
Way, and the Truth, and the Life: no man cometh to the Father, 
but by Me. Greatly then do they err, who suppose that they 
can do any thing good of themselves; for Christ said, that of Him- 
self He did nothing. 

“Christ’s true Humanity alone, in its union with His Deity, 
are we to worship; for the man Christ is truly God; and God 
is truly Man. Therefore we are not to trouble ourselves about 
any creature, but solely to seek God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who 
is our only Way to the Father. Now even if we come into the 
Way of Truth, which is Christ, yet we are not perfectly blessed, 
although we behold the Truth of God. For, while we are behold- 
ing, we are not one with that which we behold: so long as there 
is any thing in our perceptions or understanding, we are not one 
with the One: for where there is nothing but One, we can see 
nothing but One: for we cannot see God except in blindness, or 
know Him except in ignorance. St. Augustin says, that no soul 
can come to God, unless it go to God without a creature, and 
taste Him without a likeness. Therefore, because the soul isa 
creature, it must cast itself out of itself, and in its hour of contem- 
plation must cast out all saints and angels; for these are all creat- 
ures, and hinder the soul in its union with God. For it should be 
bare of all things, without need of any thing; and then it can come 
to God in His likeness. For nothing unites so much as likeness, 
and receives its color so soon. For God will then give Himself 
to the faculties of the soul; so that the soul grows in the likeness 


344 NOTE J. 


of God, and takes His color. The image lies in the soul’s powers, 
the likeness in its virtues, the divine color in its union: and thus 
its union becomes so intimate, that it does not work its works in 
the form of a creature, but in its divine form, wherein it is united 
to God, nay, that its works are taken from it, and God works all 
its works in His form. And then, while it beholds God, and thus 
becomes more united with Him, the union may become such, that 
God by degrees pours Himself into it, and draws it so entirely 
into Himself, that no distinction any longer remains between vir- 
tue and vice, and that the soul does not recognize itself as at all 
distinct from God. — Therefore let the light of grace overpower 
the light of nature in you: for the higher knowledge the soul 
attains in the light of grace, the darker does it deem the light of 
nature. If then it would know the real truth, it should observe, 
whether it is drawn away from all things, whether it has lost itself, 
whether it loves God with His love, whether it be not hindered by 
any things, and whether God alone lives in it. If so, it has lost 
itself, as Mary lost Jesus, when He went into the school of His 
Father’s highest doctrine; wherefore He heeded not His mother. 
Thus it happens to the noblest soul that goes into God’s school. 
There it learns to know what God is, in His Deity and in the 
Trinity, and what He is in His Humanity, and to know the all- 
gracious Will of God. That man is most truly God, who works 
all his works out of love, and gives up his will to the will of his 
Heavenly Father.” 

Andrewes on the‘other hand, in his P(t on our text, enters 
on more dangerous ground, and tries to show that in certain 
cases it may be expedient for the soul to lose the presence of 
Christ altogether, without restricting this to His Humanity. 
“The Fathers go yet further, and inquire whether this also be 
not true in His spiritual presence, and resolve that even in regard 
of that it is no less true. To some vobis it is expedient that even 
after that manner also Christ go from them. And who are they ? 
One vobis, when men grow faint in seeking and careless in keep- 
ing Him.— Gone He was, and meet He should so be, to teach 
them to rise and seek, to watch and keep Him better. Another vobis, 
when men grow high-conceited and overweening of themselves 
and their own strength, and say with David, Non movebor, as if 
they had Christ pinned to them, and with Peter, Etsi omnes non 
ego. It is more than time Christ be gone from such, to teach 


NOTE J. 345 


them to see and know themselves better. But if Christ leave us, 
if He withdraw His spiritual presence, we fall into sin; and that 
cannot be expedient for any. Good that Ihave been in trouble ; 
for before I was troubled, I went wrong ; but not good for any to 
fall into sin. Yes indeed: Audeo dicere, saith St. Augustin, I 
dare avow it, Expedit superbo ut incidat in peccatum,—there are 
the very terms, — it is expedient they fall into some notorious sin, 
as David, as Peter did, that their faces may be filled with shame, 
and they by that confusion learn to walk with more humility. 
The messenger of Satan, that was sent the Apostle to buffet him, 
was of this nature, and to no other end sent, but to prevent this 
malady. In a word, Christ must withdraw, — no remedy, — that 
we may grow humble, and, being humble, the Holy Ghost may 
come: for He cometh to none, rests on none, giveth grace to none, 
but the humble. So we see, Christ may be, and is, even accord- 
ing to His spiritual presence, withdrawn from some persons, and 
for their good,— Christus abit, ut Paracletus veniat ;—and that 
many ways meet itis, it so should be. This makes us say, Go 
Lord, set up Thyself above the heavens, and Thy glory over all the 
earth.” 

In these remarks there is a groundwork of truth, though the 
assertions about David and St. Peter are very questionable; and 
on two points, the most startling ones, the good Bishop has been 
led by his exceeding fondness for paradox to overstate and mis- 
state the fact. For one cannot well say that Christ is spiritually 
present in a proud or a careless heart. So far asa heart is proud, 
it excludes Him, as with a gate of iron: so far as it is careless, it 
cannot hold Him. Moreover, without entering into the mysteri- 
ous question, which has been so much agitated in various theo- 
logical and philosophical schools, as to the expediency of evil, and 
whether or no it was expedient that Adam should fall into sin, it 
is plain that in the examples referred to the problem is totally 
different. If a man be proud or careless, sin is already in him; 
and when a spiritual disease is latent in the constitution, it is often 
expedient and salutary that the morbid matter should be cast out 
and got rid of by its open eruption, and the consequent sanatory 
discipline. Thus do ingenious logicians puzzle themselves and 
others by using ambiguous words without asking themselves what 
they mean. Indeed the whole notion of Christ’s “ withdrawing 
His spiritual presence that the Holy Ghost may come,” implies 


346 NOTE J. 


great vagueness of thought. For this itself is the work of the 
Holy Ghost, Christ’s spiritual presence in the soul. He was not 
to speak of Himself, but to glorify Christ, to receive of Christ’s, and 
to show it to us. 

A different, and, it seems to me, a correcter view of those cir- 
cumstances in the Christian life, which present the closest analogy 
to the expediency of our Lord’s departure from the disciples, is 
taken by Hossbach, one of the most eloquent modern preachers in 
Germany, in the third Sermon of his first Volume, on the Gospel 
for the fourth Sunday after Easter. After speaking of the effect 
which was to be produced on the disciples, he continues: “ This 
is the way and the manner in which we too receive the Holy 
Ghost, and in which He begins to glorify the Saviour in us. 
Often years will pass away, over us as over the disciples, long 
years, during which we may hear the word of the Lord daily, and 
yet are not penetrated thoroughly thereby. He evermore opens 
the fountains of His grace, to refresh us with His life-giving 
water; but we let it dry up without drinking it into our hearts. 
We feel indeed that He is holding out something grand and glori- 
ous; and we take pleasure also in His words: but that which is 
deepest and most precious in them 1s totally lost to us, because 
our sense for it has not yet been awakened. He has so many 
things to say to us; but we cannot bear them yet; for the life- 
giving Spirit has not yet come and enlightened us. Such is wont 
to be the condition of all in our earlier years, when the word of 
the Saviour is first brought before our souls. We receive it with 
our understandings, and acknowledge the truth contained in it; 
and at solemn and stirring moments we may be acted upon by it 
powerfully; but anon we are drawn away by the many charms, 
which life presents to us; and we go afar from the Lord, or at 
best divide ourselves between His service and that of the world. 
Alas! and there are, we all know, still worse cases. Many de- 
part altogether from the Fountain of Life, and follow the prompt- 
ings of sensual pleasure, which leads them to destruction. But 
even supposing that we have gained a holy love for the Saviour 
during our youth, and have preserved it continually amid the 
temptations of the world, even if we have not closed our hearts 
against the workings of the Holy Ghost, who works without ceas- 
ing in all such as belong to the household of the Saviour, still our 
union with the Saviour will be wanting on our side in stability 


NOTE J. SAF. 


and intimacy: we shall often pass on blindly, when He desires to 
give us His richest and most glorious revelations; often we shall 
be unable to understand what He means, when He addresses us 
with His deep, spiritual words. Whence comes this ? whence, 
except that we, like His first disciples, want that experience of 
life, which alone can open our minds to receive His deeper mean- 
ing, and which we cannot regard as any thing but an ordinance of 
God the Holy Ghost, to glorify the Saviour more and more in us. 
For he who knows not the world and its manifold complicated 
relations from his own observation, — he who has not yet felt the 
insecurity and mutability of this transitory existence, — he who 
has never yet been tossed to and fro by the storms of life, and so” 
has had little or no occasion to look beyond this temporal to an 
eternal state, — such a person can understand but little of Him, 
who came for this very purpose, to bring mankind. to eternal life : 
his life will be like a smooth surface, into which the healing 
waters of the Gospel cannot enter, and from which they glide off 
without effect. Something like this must we conceive to have 
been the state of the disciples at the time when our Lord spake 
the words of the text to them. But, as He said to them, that it 
was good for them that He should go away, —as He promised 
them that, in the very midst of the afllictions which awaited them, 
the purifying and strengthening Spirit, whom they needed, would 
come, — in like manner does He aid us also, and render us gradu- 
ally richer in that experience, whereby the Spirit whom He 
sends will find the surest access to our hearts. O, they will come 
for us too, the more our outward sphere of life unfolds and 
widens, — they will come, the days of heavy sorrow, the dark 
hours in which we shall see what was dearest and most precious 
to us on this earth vanish away, — the heavy, crushing state, in 
which we can find neither counsel nor comfort, — they will come, 
the times of distress, in which our human neighbors have neither 
power nor will to help us. But along with them comes the Holy 
Spirit, whom the Saviour promised to send, and lifts up man’s 
downcast eyes from temporal things to eternal; He raises the 
quaking heart to prayer, and intercedes for it with unutterable 
groanings; He purifies, comforts, and strengthens it; and through 
the midst of the dark clouds of affliction which surround us, He 
shows us the bright form of the Saviour, and places us beneath 
the rays of His eternal light. Thus in our afllictions is Christ 


348 NOTE K. 


glorified in us by the Holy Spirit. Thenceforward we under- 
stand, far otherwise than before, what He meant when He called 
upon us to enter into the communion of His sufferings, and to be 
fashioned after the likeness of His death. The word of Life, 
which we had so often disregarded or misunderstood, comes sud- 
denly before our soul in wonderful clearness: and the sorrowing 
heart finds therein, what the glad heart did not seek, a sacred, 
inexhaustible fountain of everlasting life, and that rich, heavenly 
consolation which this world cannot give. Thus, in proportion as 
a man’s temporal life grows dark, his eternal life brightens: 
through painful experience and bitter grief, the Spirit leads him 
to Him who cries to all the weary and heavy-laden, Come to Me, 
and I will refresh you. And he who in the hour of His need has 
once received grace for grace from the fulness of the Lord, can- 
not turn away from Him again: he cannot but cleave more and 
more closely to Him, and receive His divine life into himself: 
nay, he cannot cease thanking God for the heavy trial, in which 
the Holy Ghost has come to him. For he has lost what was per- 
ishable, and has gained what is imperishable: his lot is the highest 
which can befall a man: Jesus Christ is glorified in him.” 

The other passages cited in these Notes are almost all of them 
such as I have met with, or at least such as have only attracted 
my attention, since the Sermons were preached: hence any coin- 
cidences that may occur in them are accidental, or, more correctly 
speaking, what might naturally be expected when persons are 
contemplating the same objects attentively. But with Hossbach’s 
Sermon I had long been familiar; therefore whatever resemblance 
to it may be found in mine must be derived from it. 


NoTE 4K; “p..60.. 1.26. 


On the precise meaning of the name, Paraclete, as given by our 
Lord, in His last discourse, to the Holy Spirit, who was to come 
after His departure, different opinions have been entertained 
even from the early ages of the Church. The chief part of the 
Greek Fathers, as may be seen in Suicer’s quotations from Origen, 
Epiphanius, Chrysostom, Theophylact, and Cyril, connected it 
with the Hellenistic use of tagaxadety and magaxAnozs to denote 
the act of consoling and consolation. In the early Latin Church 


ie 


NOTE K. 349 


on the other hand, Tlaoazdnros was commonly rendered Advo- 
catus, agreeably to its signification in classical Greek. That this 
is the true interpretation, is contended by Knapp in a Disserta- 
tion which, like most of his, has much merit philologically: 
Luecke calls it incontrovertible. In the first Epistle of St. John 
(ii. 1), —the only other passage of the New Testament where the 
word occurs, and where it is applied to Christ Himself, — our 
Translators, following the common consent of theologians, render 
it by Advocate: which word, though its meaning is narrower than 
that of the Roman Advocatus, seems in this place sufficiently to 
express what the Apostle intended, when he said, that we have a 
Paraclete with the Father, who is the Propitiation for our sins. 
The office of the English advocate however, which relates espe- 
cially to the pleading of a cause, does not correspond to that 
assigned by our Lord to the Holy Spirit. Knapp shows that the 
Latin advocatus, like the Greek magn nt0S, answered more 
nearly to our general term, counsel, having to advise, to direct, to 
support, rather than to plead: and it is only in this sense that the 
name is applied to the Holy Spirit, who was not to plead for the 
disciples, but to plead in them, to direct them what they were to 
say, to prompt, to encourage, to support them, and to lead them to 
the Truth. Hence the English word advocate would not repre- 
sent the office of the Holy Spirit as the Paraclete. It would have 
been well indeed if a word coextensive in signification could have 
been found, so that the unity of the office which our two Blessed 
Paracletes have vouchsafed to assume,—and which is implied 


where our Lord says that the Father will send them another Para- 
clete, thereby designating Himself as the first, —should have: 
been ag manifest in our Version as in the original. But I know 


not how this could be effected, unless we contented ourselves with 
merely Anglicizing the Greek word, according to the practice 


which we have followed in so many ecclesiastical terms, for 


instance, in apostle, bishop, deacon; a practice however which is 
not without injury, inasmuch as it not only obscures our percep- 
tion of the meaning of the word thus imported, but, by severing it 
from its etymological associations, deprives it of a portion of its 
power. In the Rhemish Version, which has in great part been 
constructed on the convenient system of taking the words of the 
Vulgate, clipping off the Latin, and tacking on English termina- 
30 


350 NOTE K. 


tions, this has been done in the Gospel, where it gives Paraclete 
in all the four passages: but the advantage, which might have 
accrued from this, is lost through the use of Advocate in the 
Epistle. Here too it follows the Vulgate, which has Paracletus, or 
rather Paraclitus * in the Gospel, Advocatus in the Epistle. 

At present so many sacred associations have connected them- 
selves for generation after generation with the name of the Com- 
Jorier, that it would seem something like an act of sacrilege to 
change it. Indeed, if any body ever reads Campbell’s translation 
of the Gospels, he must feel a shock of pain, I should think, when 


* The change of Paracletus into Paraclitus was analogous to what took 
place in many words, in which the Greek 77 was regarded as equivalent to 
the Latin 7: an ecclesiastical parallel is furnished by the expression Kyrie 
eleison. But when the Greek original was forgotten, the Latin form easily 
gave rise to a mistake about its etymology: hence the penultima was sup- 
posed to be short, and is so treated even by Prudentius. Thus it was very 
natural that the same error should creep into the common chanting of the 
Liturgy. Erasmus however, whose knowledge of grammar seems to have 
been more profound, as his interest in it was still livelier than that which he 
took in theological truth, after a poor note on the meaning of the word 
Paracletus, adds avery long one, one of his three longest on the whole 
Gospel of St. John, upon the sin committed by this malpronunciation, 
wittily, though somewhat profanely, or at least in a tone better suited to 
his satirical writings, urging the offence of those who, quoties quoties id 
Saciunt, Deum si non una syllaba, certe uno fraudant tempore. Andrewes 
on the other hand, to whom nothing comes amiss for his Sermons, not even 
a pun founded on a blunder, surprises us somewhat by saying, in the 
fourth On the Sending of the Holy Ghost,—“To go to a lawyer's reading, 
and not hear it, serves us not for our worldly doubts; nor to hear the 
physic lecture, for the complaints of our bodies. No; we make them 
Paracletos, we call them to us, we question with them in particular, we 
have private conference, about our estates. Only for our souls’ affairs it 
is enough to take our directions in open churches, and there delivered in 
gross: private conference we endure not; a Paracletus there we need not. 
One we must have, to know thoroughly the state of our lands or goods: 
one we must have entirely acquainted with the state of our body: in our 
souls it holdeth not: I say no more: it were good it did. We make hima 
stranger all our life long. He is Paraclitus, as they were wont to pro- 
nounce him, truly Paraclitus, one whom we declined and looked over our 
shoulders at. And then, in our extremity, suddenly He is Paracletus: we 
seek and send for Him; we would come a little acquainted with Him. 
But take we heed of Nescio vos: it is a true answer: we take too little a 
time to breed acquaintance in. Nescio vos, I fear, they find, that so seek 
Him: Paracletus they do not; Paraclitus rather.” 


eo 


NOTE K. 3ol 


he comes to this part of St. John, and finds, “I will entreat the 
Father; and He will give you another Monitor ;” and again, “ If 
I do not depart, the Monitor will not come to you.” Campbell 
here adopts a third sense of the word ITagazdnrog, which Er- 
nesti, in conformity to the above-mentioned doctrinary spirit of 
the last century, maintained should be rendered by Doctor or 
Teacher. Knapp however shows that this sense is less appropriate | 
than the other two. In fact, if we understand the word Comforter, 
not merely in its secondary and common sense, as Consoler, but 
also in its primary and etymological sense, as Strengthener and 
Supporter, it would be difficult to find any word in our language 
so well fitted to express a range of meaning corresponding to that 
embraced by the Greek [Tugaziytog, although etymologically 
different. It seems to be one of the words which have come to us 
through the Latin of the Church; of which words it would be in- 
teresting if some scholar learned in the archeology of our language 
would draw up a complete list. For though confortare is scarcely 
found in classical Latin, it is common in the Vulgate, and had 
been used in earlier translations of the Bible; as we see from Lac- 
tantius, Div. Inst. iv. 15, where he quotes Isaiah xxxv. 3, Confor- 
tamini manus resolutae ; and when our ancestors first adopted it, 
they retained its Latin sense. Thus it is continually used by Wic- 
lif to represent its Latin original; for instance, in Luke xxii. 43, 
And an aungel apperide to him fro hevene and coumfortide him ; 
(Apparait autem illi Angelus de coelo confortans eum); Acts ix. 
19, And whanne he hadde take mete he was coumfortid ; (Et cum 
accepisset cibum confortatus est); 1 Cor. xvi. 13. Do ghe manli 
and be ghe coumfortid in the Lord; (Viriliter agite et conforta- 
mini); Phil. iv. 13. I mai alle thingis in him that coumfortith me ; 
(Omnia possum in eo qui me confortat) : see also Eph. vi. 10, Col. 
1.11, 2 Tim. ii. 1, iv.17. In other passages however, we find that 
the later sense of the word, which has since entirely supplanted 
the primary one, had already attached itself thereto; for instance, 
in 2 Cor. i. 3,4. Blessid be god and the fadir of oure lord Jesus 
crist, fadir of mercies and god of all coumfort, which coumfortith us 
in al oure tribulacioun, that also we moun coumforte hem that ben in 
al disese ; where the Vulgate has consolatio and consolari. Hence 
it might be thought doubtful in what sense the word Coumfortour 
was used by Wiclif, in the four passages of the Gospel, for the 
Paraclete ; unless we recollected that the alternative was between 


302 NOTE K. 


advocatus and consolator, and that the great body of divines prior 
to his time had followed the Greek Fathers in taking the latter 
sense. 

Indeed even Augustin, —though in his 74th Tractate on St. 
John he says, “ The Paraclete is called in Latin the Advocate ; 
and it is said of Christ: We have an Advocate with the Father, 
Jesus Christ the righteous,” and though in the 92d he takes this 
sense in explaining xv. 26, — yet in the 94th seems almost to pre- 
fer the other explanation; or rather he adopts both, though with- 
out accurately tracing the connection between them. “This 
Comforter, (he says,) or Advocate (for either term is equivalent 
to the Greek word Paraclete) became necessary after Christ’s 
departure ; and He had not alluded to Him in the beginning of 
His ministry, while He was with them, because they were consoled 
by His presence; yet now when about to depart, He thought 
proper to tell them that a Being was to come, through whose 
indwelling power, love being shed abroad in their hearts, they 
should declare the Word of God with boldness; and while He 
should give internal testimony respecting Christ, they also should 
bear witness; neither should they be tempted to evil, when their 
Jewish enemies cast them out of the synagogues, and tried to kill 
them, thinking they did God service: since that love which was 
diffused in their hearts by the Holy Spirit, beareth all things. 
Hence then, we draw this as the full sense, that He was to make 
them His martyrs, that is His witnesses by the Holy Spirit; so 
that, by the operation of this Spirit in their hearts, they could bear 
any severity of persecution, nor cool in their zeal for preaching, 
while that sacred fire inflamed them. These things therefore, He 
said, I have spoken unto you, and when the time cometh, ye shall 
remember that I told you of them. That is, These things have I 
spoken unto you, not only because ye shall suffer these things, but 
because when the Paraclete is come, He shall bear witness of Me, 
lest through fear of them ye should be silenced; whence it will 
come to pass that ye also shall bear witness of Me. But these 
things I said not unto you in the beginning because I was with you; 
and I consoled you by my bodily presence, exhibiting to your phy- 
sical senses that which in your spiritual childhood you could appre- 
hend.” In his much earlier work upon the Sermon on the Mount 
(i. 2) he had said, with reference to the declaration ‘that they who 
mourn shall be comforted, “'They shall be comforted by the Holy 


NOTE K. Soo 


Spirit, who is mainly on this account called the Paraclete, that is, 
the Comforter, in order that dismissing temporal they may enjoy 
eternal happiness.” 

On the strength of the authorities which have been cited, it 
became the received notion in the Church, that to console or com- 
Jort was the distinctive work of the Paraclete: and it was not till 
the second generation of the Reformers began to apply their clas- 
sical learning to the criticism of the New Testament, that the 
other interpretation was revived. Indeed Erasmus, who in two 
passages, xiv. 26, and xy. 26, retains Paracletus, and in the other 
two substitutes Consolator, says, in a note on xiv. 16, “In this 
place it was desirable to translate it Consolator, lest any one should 
suppose there were two Paracletes. For what was thus far said, 
was spoken for the purpose of consoling. Thus Christ was the 
Paraclete. Moreover He promises that He Himself will send 
another Comforter, even the Spirit of Truth.” Here he totally 
misses the force of adiov Ilagaxdnror, in supposing that our 
Lord merely applied the term to Himself, in reference to His 
present discourse to comfort the disciples. Luther renders JTa- 
oaxdnros by Tréster, and urges the blessed meaning of the name 
with his own inimitable power. Calvin, as usual, gives an excel- 
lent explanation in a few words. “The name Parsetete is here 
applied to Christ as well as to the Spirit; and properly: for it is 
the common office of each to console and encourage us and to pre- 
serve us by their defence. Christ was their patron so long as He 
lived in the world; He then committed them to the guidance and 
protection of the Spirit. Ifany one asks whether we are not to- 
day under the guardianship of Christ, the answer is easy; Christ 
is a perpetual Guardian, but not visibly. As long as He walked 
on earth He appeared openly as their Guardian; now He preserves 
us by His Spirit. He calls the Spirit another Comforter in view 
of the distinction which we observe in the blessings proceeding 
from each. It was the appropriate work of Christ, by expiating 
the sins of the world to appease the anger of God, to redeem men 
from death, to obtain righteousness and life. It is the office of 
the Spirit, to make us partakers of Christ Himself, as well as of all 
His blessings.” 

Beza, on the other hand translates TTuoazinrog by Advocatus 
in all the five passages in which it occurs, explaining it by a refer- 

30 * 


304 NOTE K. 


ence to St. Paul’s words (Rom. viii. 26), about the Spirit as malang 
intercession for us. The same explanation is given by Pearson 
on the eighth article of the Creed. But surely it is better to look 
for the interpretation in the context of St. John, where it is plain 
that the help which the Apostles are to receive from the Ilage- 
“Aytos, is in their warfare with the world: for it is a delusive 
practice, though a very common one, to seek the exposition of a pas- 
sage of Scripture in any other part, however remote, of the sacred 
Volume, rather than in the passage itself. Nor is Beza happier 
in suggesting that «Ahoy Tlagux)nrov doroge should be rendered 
Dabit alium qui sit vobis advocatus. Grotius is more clear-sighted 
here. “Christ promised another Orator, who should plead their 
cause with the world just as He was about to plead it with the 
Father. And it is to be observed, (he adds,) that the Spirit of 
God, which is the TIaoazhnros, is opposed to the Spirit of evil, 
which is the “az 7/0008; and is so called in Revelation xii. 10.” 
‘The same antithesis had been pointed out by Ireneus (m1 17) in 
a passage on the gift of the Spirit, in which we find the oldest 
extant form of a couple of favorite allegories. “ Gideon foreseeing 
this gracious gift, changed his petition, and on the fleece of wool, 
where alone before was the dew, (which fleece was a type of the 
people,) prophesied future dryness; that is, that they should not 
have the Holy Spirit from God, as Isaiah saith, and I will com- 
mand the clouds not to rain upon it; but on all the land there was 
to be dew, that is, the Spirit of God which descended upon our 
Lord, whom again He gave to the Church, sending into all the 
earth the Paraclete from heaven, whence also our Lord says the 
Devil was hurled like lightning. Wherefore the dew of God 
is necessary for us, that we may not be consumed, nor become 
unfruitful; and that, when we have an accusor, we also may have 
a Paraclete ; the Lord commending to the Holy Spirit His ser- 
vant, who had fallen among thieves, on whom He has Himself taken 
pity, and bound up his wounds, giving him two royal denaria, that 
he, receiving by the Spirit the image and superscription of the 
Father and Son, may get usury from the denaria lent to him. 
Since the time of Grotius the interpretation of ITagaxAntog 
as Advocatus has been commonly adopted by Biblical scholars, for 
instance, by Hammond, by Pearson, by Lampe, by Wetstein, by 
Bengel. To Knapp’s Dissertation I have already referred. Luecke 


: 
; 


NOTE L. 300 


and Tholuck follow him; and De Wette in his corrected Version 
has adopted the word Beistand, which Knapp recommended, Still 
the sense of Comforter, as it was so closely connected with the 
word according to its Hellenistic usage, is also very appropriate, 
both to the general work of the Spirit, and to the special reason 
for which our Lord here promises His help. Only we should 
bear in mind that the Spirit is the Comforter, in the primary as | 
well as the secondary sense of that word, and that He did not 
come merely to console the disciples for their loss, but mainly to 
strengthen their hearts and minds, by enabling them to understand 
the whole truth, and to feel the whole power of the Gospel. 

What led our Translators, from Tyndall downward, to render 
Ovx ag7jow Umass Oogarove, in xiv. 18, by I will not leave you 
comfortiess, I cannot perceive; Wicliff has fadirless. Orphans, 
the marginal reading in the Authorized Version, ought to have 
been received into the text: for the force and beauty of the 
original are much impaired by the change. 


Note L: p. 61. 


“Very much,” says Demosthenes, in his Speech against Andro- 
tion (§ 27) “does abuse and even accusation differ from reproof 
(eh¢yyov): for an accusation is when any one making a simple 
allegation, offers no proof of what he asserts; but itis a reproof 
(€ie¢yyov) when he who makes the charges, at the same time 
shows them to be true.” In the early Greek language indeed 
the prevalent sense of éAéyyetv seems to have been to reprove, 
to rebuke, to reproach ; as we see in the Homeric use, both of the 
verb, and of its derivatives éleyyea and éheyyées, which are 
applied as opprobrious terms to persons. But in the phraseology 
of the courts of justice and of the schools, éA¢yyeev implied demon- 
stration and some sort of conviction, differing however from “710- 
Ogixvuvat, in that the latter was simply to prove, whereas é/- 
éyyetv includes the refutation of an opponent. Thus Aristotle 
(mEgt CopLorinoy ERY LOY, c. 1) defines éevzog as ovddo- 
yLouos MEL QYTLGAOEWS LOU OUMTMEGAGUUTOS. Hence a com- 
plex notion being comprehended in the word, its usage naturally 
swayed sometimes toward the one side, sometimes toward the 


306 | NOTE L. 


other: and this ambiguity we also find in the writers of the New 
Testament; wherefore the leading notion can only be determined 
by the context in each case. For instance, in Luke in. 19,1 Tim. 
vy. 20, Tit. i. 18, Rev. iii. 19, it is that of reproving or rebuking ; 
in Matth. xviii. 15, Tit. i. 9, and probably in 2 Tim. iv. 2, that of 
convincing. In the last bore indeed we render éseyyé by 
reprove; but this, when éxitiunoov follows immediately after, 
would be a sort of pleonasm: besides the main work to be effected 
by the preaching of the Gospel would be omitted, unless it is 


expressed by é4evzé, the work which especially needs to be per- . 


formed év macy pazxgoduulg zat dvdayy, that is, with all pa- 
tience and teaching ; for the rendering in our Version, long-suffer- 
ing, hardly gives the force of puaxoo0vula in this place ; amd doc- 
trine for Ouyn seems to have crept in here, as in some other 
passages, through the medium of doctrina in the Latin Versions 5 
though doctrine in English does not appropriately express the act 
of teaching, but only that which is taught. Again there are pas- 
sages in which the form convict would most adequately represent 
Eh ELV. Thus, in James 1 ii. 9, apagtiuy éoyaceods éhey40- 
MEvol UNO TOU VOMOV WS TAG oafarae should be rendered Ye 
commit sin, being convicted by the law as transgressors. In John 
viii. 9, we translate Um0 773 ouvredjoEws Eheyyouevor being 
convicted by their conscience. In John viii. 46, 1g é& vucy ehey- 
Yel ME née aUcoL tag, —where Tindall’s, Cranmer’s, and the 
Geneva New Testament had rebuke, —and that of 1611 substitu- 
ted Which of you convinceth me of sin ?— convicteth would have 
been preferable. On the other hand, in Hebr. xu. 5, where we 
render “0€ éxhviou UM avLOU EheyyOUMEVvOs nor faint when thou 
art rebuked of Him, the meaning of the original would perhaps 
have been better expressed by when thou art tried by Him; for 
this is a very common signification of éh ere derived from its 
forensic usage. 

Now the passage among all these which comes the nearest to 
our text, is the last cited from St. John, viii. 46: ri¢ ef vm 
éheyyer mé Tél auaotlas; This is the same form of words as 
éhiyeee tov xoomoy négl apaotias which, if the first clause 
stood alone, we might render, as I have said in the Sermon, He 
will convict the world of sin. But since our modern usage re- 


NOTE L. SOd 


stricts the form convict to its legal sense, and to such other cases 
as correspond closely thereto, where the conviction is of some- 
thing personal in him who is convicted, it would scarcely be ap- 
propriate to speak of convicting the world of the judgment of its 
Prince, still less of Christ’s righteousness ; though this also indi- 
rectly conveys the condemnation of the world. Tor the reasons 
stated in the Sermon, it seems to me that convincing, rather than 
reproving, the world is the main part of the work which our Lord 
in His promise ascribes to the Comforter. The conviction, how- 
ever, in each of the three instances, implies a severe reproof: 
whereas the reproof would not necessarily imply any conviction. 
Though the Revisers of our authorized Version, —as they ought 
rather to be called than the Translators, — have followed Wiclif 
and the Geneva Bible in keeping reprove in the text, while Tyn- 
dall and Coverdale and Cranmer’s Bible have rebuke, — they 
have shown, by putting convince in the margin, that they felt 
doubt about the correctness of the other rendering. The general 
adoption of the latter would naturally be occasioned in part by 
the Latin arguet, in which, though its original signification was no 
less wide than that of éA¢yy, the sense of reproving became more 
predominant, and which was retained from the Vulgate by Eras- 
mus, and even by Beza.* The latter, however, says in his note, 
“Arguet, éh€yéet, id est, convincet, ita ut nihil habeat quod prae- 
texat;” and he makes this the prominent notion in his detailed 
exposition of the whole passage. 

Luther, rendering ééyyerv by strafen, almost entirely loses 
sight of the work of convincing, as assigned in this place to the 
Comforter. But there is his wonderful living eloquence in the 
manner in which he expands his interpretation of the passage, and 
applies it to the events of his own times. The disciples, he says, 
on hearing our Lord’s promise, might have asked, “ What will the 
Comforter do to us, and through our means? Hereto Jesus 
makes answer, clearly setting forth His office and work, that He 


* Of course the Rhemish version turns arguet into shal argue, according 
to its common practice of keeping the words of the Vulgate, and merely 
Anglicizing the termination, with little reeard as to whether the English 
form would convey the same meaning. Thus the purpose of having the 
Scriptures in the vulgar tongue was ingeniously frustrated ; for the read- 
ers of that Verson must often be unable to understand it, except by trans- 
lating it back into Latin. 


308 NOTE L. 


was to rebuke the world, and was to exercise this rebuke by the 
word of the Apostles over the whole world. So that He speaks 
of His Kingdom, which He purposed to establish upon earth after 
His Ascension, and which was to spread mightily through the 
whole world by the power of the Holy Ghost, and to bring all 
things into subjection to Him: which however was not to be a 
kingdom of this world, so that He should smite with the sword, 
depose kings and princes, and set up others, or create a new order 
of things and laws; but was to be a government to be carried on 
solely by the word or preaching of the Apostles; and yet the 
whole world was to be subjected and made obedient to him there- 
by. And He calls the office in plain terms that of rebuking the 
world, that is of reproving all that it did and was, and telling man- 
kind that they were all, in their then state, punishable and unright- 
eous before God, and that they must listen to the preaching of 
Christ, or be eternally condemned and lost. Thus He here gives 
Tis Apostles and the preachers of the Gospel the highest author- 
ity and power above every authority upon earth, that they must 
rebuke the world with their preaching, and that all men must for 
God’s sake be subject to this preaching, and must suffer them- 
selves to be rebuked by it, if they would receive God’s grace, and 
be saved. Verily this is a vast grasp in a word, and the begin- 
ning of a war which was to be great and arduous, that these few, 
mean, poor beggars, the Apostles, are to stir up the whole world, 
and to bring it upon their shoulders. For what is meant by the 
world 2 Not one or two of their fellows ; but all emperors, kings, 
princes, and whatever is noble, rich, great, learned, wise, or any 
thing upon earth: all these are to be rebuked by their preaching, as 
being ignorant, unrighteous, and condemned before God, with all 
their wisdom, righteousness, and power, which they had hitherto 
had and made boast of.— The world cries out furiously, when 
this sermon begins, that it is a mischievous, intolerable sermon, 
producing dissension and confusion, giving rise to disobedience, 
insurrection, tumult. And we cannot wonder at these complaints: 
for it is a vexatious matter, that the preachers should take upon 
themselves to reprove all without distinction, and should allow 
none to be just and good before God. Who can deem it right or 
reasonable that this sermion should breed such a hubbub, and 
bring about changes and innovations, so that the whole former 
religion and worship, with so many beautiful ceremonies of such 


NOTE L. 309 


long standing, should be despised, and should fall? — And the 
most vexatious thing of all is, that they who undertake the work of 
rebuking, are not high and mighty, learned or otherwise eminent 
men, but poor, mean, unknown, despised fishermen, and such folks 
as everybody would class with beggars and vagabonds. If other 
people did this, who have some rank, and are set to govern the 
world; or if it had been deliberated upon in due form, adopted, 
and approved by such persons, or (as the phrase is now) settled 
by a general council. But that these few beggars, of whom nobody 
knows whence they come, and who never asked anybody, without 
command or license should come forward, and dictate to the whole 
world, and alter all things, — who can endure or approve of this ? 
Well, here you see that Christ says, the Holy Ghost shall rebuke the 
world, and shall do this by these His messengers: so that it is not 
they, but the Holy Ghost, but rebukes, through whose command and 
office they preach. And if He did not this, they would leave it 
alone. For without Him they would neither have the understanding 
to frame such a rebuke and judgment upon the whole world; nor 
would they have the courage to come forward openly and attack 
the whole world. For they are not so mad and silly as not to see 
and feel what awaits them. Indeed Christ had told them suf- 
ficiently before, that they were to risk their bodies and lives. 
Doubtless they would much rather have been silent, and have left 
the world unrebuked, if it had depended on themselves. But this 
office was laid upon them and commanded them by the Holy 
Ghost, that they must do it, and that God will have it so. At 
the same time however Christ gives them the assurance and 
comfort, that, because it is the office and work of the Holy 
Ghost, He will direct it, and will make way with His rebukes, 
and that it shall not be quenched by the world, although the 
world set itself with all its might against it, fiercely raging and 
roaring, cursing and slaying. — Well, as I said, what speak ye to 
me about this? Itis not our doing. Speak to Him, who here 
says, The Holy Ghost shall rebuke the world. But if He is to 
rebuke, He must not be silent, much less flatter, and say what the 
world loves to hear. If they will not hear it, the Holy Ghost will 
not cease from His rebuke for all their raging and muttering, but 
will continue it until they give over or perish. If dissensions and 
tumults arise on this account, tell me, Whose fault is this, except 
his, who will not bear or listen to this sermon of the Holy Ghost ? 


360 NOTE UL. 


Who is disobedient here? They who take up and preach the 
sermon according to God’s commandment? or they who set them- 
selves stiffly against God’s commandment, and claim to be in the 
right, and complain of disobedience, if one does not preach and do 
as they wish ? If they would receive this sermon as others do, and 
as they ought to do by God’s solemn command, there would be no 
dissension ; but all people would be of one mind, as true Christians 
are. Since however they run with their mad heads against it, 
storming and raging, we must needs let it be, that they should ex- 
cite divisions and uproar; but we will see who is the strongest, 
and who carries his work to an end. Our Papists have already 
conspired together so often, and resolved to destroy this doctrine, 
or they will not lay down their heads in peace: but I trust they 
will not drive the Holy Ghost, who has hitherto preserved Chris- 
tianity and the Gospel, out of heaven quite so soon as they expect. 
Should it turn out however, that they themselves are cast down 
and consumed to ashes, as happened of yore to Rome and to Je- 
rusalem they must blame themselves.” 

In thus rendering éheyyeev by sirafen, Luther seems to have 
adopted what was already the received version among his country- 
men. For his favorite Tauler has the same word, though he 
applies it very differently, but still with his own deep beauty. 
“The Holy Ghost (he says) wird die Welt strafen ; that is, will 
enable man to see clearly, whether the world is lying concealed 
within him, hidden in the principle of his being: this He will 
reprove, declare, explain, and rebuke. Now what is the world in 
us? It is the ways, the workings, the imaginations of the world, 
the world’s comfort, joy, love, and grief, in love, in fear, in sor- 
row, in care. For St. Bernard says, ‘ With all wherein thou 
rejoicest and sorrowest, thou shalt also be judged.’ Children, 
this will the Holy Ghost, when He comes to us, clearly reveal, 
and rebuke us on account thereof, so that, if we are reasonable, 
we shall never have rest or quiet, so long as we know and find 
this evil and noxious possession within us. And when one finds 
this evil inclination in a man, that he is possessed by any creature, 
be it living or dead, and he remains unrebuked, all this 1s the 
world. And when a man keeps this in himself unrebuked, this is 
a true, manifest sign that the Holy Ghost has not entered into the 
principle of his life: for Christ has said, When He comes, He will 
rebuke all these things.” 


NOTE L. 361 


The same word is also used by Luther in that passage of. the 
book of Genesis (vi. 3), where it seems to be declared that the 
Spirit, who was given back to man on the day of Pentecost, was 
in some sort to be taken away. The words, which we translate 
My Spirit shall not always strive with man, are rendered by 
Luther, Die Menschen wollen sich meinen Geist nicht mehr strafen 
lassen. 

Augustin too (In Joann. Tract. xev. 1), looking solely at the 
Latin arguet, explains the Spirit’s work to be that of reproving, 
without reference to any conviction. “What is this? (he says on 
our text). Does not the Lord reprove the world of sin when He 
says: If I had not come and spoken unto them they had not had 
sin; but now they have no excuse Jor their sin? Does He not 
reprove them of righteousness when He says: O righteous Father, 
the world hath not known thee? Does He not reprove them of 
judgment, when He says that He will say unto them on His left 
hand: Go away into everlasting jire prepared for the devil and his 
angels ? — Why is it then that He ascribes this work peculiarly to 
the Holy Spirit? Is it, that since Christ spoke only among the 
Jewish nation, the world does not appear to have been reproved, 
as he is understood to be who hears his reprover ? But the Holy 
Spirit in His disciples scattered through the world, is not supposed 
to have reproved one nation only, but the world. — Now who will 
dare affirm that the Holy Spirit reproves the world through the 
disciples of Christ, and yet Christ Himself does not do it? when 
the Apostle exclaims: Do ye wish to receive a proof of Christ 
speaking in me? ‘Therefore whomsoever the Holy Spirit re- 
proves, Christ reproves as well. But it seems to me, that inas-. 
much as love, which casteth out fear, must be diffused in their 
hearts by the Holy Spirit, before they would dare to reprove the 
world raging with persecutions, on this account He says: He will. 
reprove the world ; as if He had said, He will diffuse love in your 
hearts, that thus fear being removed ye may be free to reprove.” 
Here, it seems to me, this great Father has involved himself in 
unprofitable perplexities, and missed the force of the passage, by 
mistaking the meaning of Eheyyetv, and thus losing sight of the 
distinction between Christ’s work and that of the Spirit, as the 
latter is set before us in this and other places of Scripture, namely, 
the conviction which He was to produce by glorifying Christ in 
the hearts of such as were to be called to the inheritance of faith, 

31 


362 NOTE L. 


When we discern this truth, the difficulties here raised by Augus- 
tin seem little better than trifling. Nor is his solution of his last 
difficulty by bringing in caritas, as he so often does when he is at 
a loss for an explanation, at all satisfactory. The Spirit had other 
gifts to bestow on the Apostles, beside caritas ; and among His 
other gifts are some that were more to the purpose here. He was to 
teach them what to say, to speak in them and through them, and 
to carry their words with power to the hearts of their hearers. He 
was to act not only upon the Apostles, but also through them upon 
the world; and the world was to be the object of his ELEY IOS» 
The Latin word arguere however so naturally suggested the 
notion of reproving, that in his 143d and 144th Sermons, where 
he again treats of this passage, Augustin assumes throughout, as a 
thing plain and certain, that this is the special work ascribed here 
to the Spirit. 

There being such a general agreement among the translators of 
the New Testament, at least down to recent times, in adopting a 
different interpretation of é4éyyeev from that which I have carried 
through the whole course of these Sermons, I am in a manner 
bound to show that my own interpretation is not destitute of 
authority. In fact, so far as I can judge, it has been adopted by 
a great majority of the divines who have given any exposition of 
this passage; at all events since the Revival of letters and the 
Reformation led men to apply their grammatical and philological 
knowledge to the interpretation of the Scriptures. Chrysostom 
indeed, when explaining this passage in his 78th Homily on St. 
John, takes eheyese in the sense of convicting, but mainly with a 
view to the condemnation of the world. “Not unpunished,” he 
says, ‘“ will they do these things, should He come; for the things 
which have already happened are sufficient to silence them; but 
when through Him these things also are brought against them and 
the instructions are more complete and the signs clearer, far more 
will they be condemned. — He will strip them of every excuse 
and show them sins beyond the reach of pardon.” ‘This too is 
the tenor of the interpretation by Theodore of Mopsuesta, as 
given in the Catena published by Dr. Cramer. “ So formidable,’ 
He says, ‘is any descent of the Holy Spirit, that when He 
returns to men, the sin of those who have taken council against 
Me is exposed.” To the same effect Apollinaris says, in the 


NOTE L. 363 


same Catena: “ He shall convince the world that it is condemned 
under sin on account of unbelief; for faith destroys the power of 
sin, but unbelief confirms it; and the Spirit appearing in believ- 
ers was the condemnation of unbelievers; for those destitute of 
the gift were convicted by the fact of its presence in believers ; 
and this showed them to be vessels of wrath and unfit for the 
Spirit.” Yet the story of the day of Pentecost ought to be suffi- 
cient to prove that the conviction wrought by the Spirit is a con- 
viction unto salvation, rather than unto condemnation. But man 
has ever been readier to convict in order to condemn, than to 
convince in order to bless; and this portion of the old man has 
stuck tenaciously, even to those who have been called to the 
preaching of the Gospel, insomuch that many have seemed to 
fancy that the Holy Ghost also shared their predilection, utterly 
alien as it is to the Spirit of Love. 

Here too we are reminded of that same deficiency, which I have 
had occasion to remark more than once, and which gives such a 
narrow, lifeless character to a large part of the expositions of 
Scripture by the Fathers, — their aptness to look at the words 
spoken, and the things done, as though they were past, and related 
solely to the past, without suflicient regard to that which was per- 
manent in them, and which gives them an ever-living, present in- 
terest for all ages, and for every single member of the Church. 
Thus, in considering the éheyyog of the Spirit, as we see, they 
scarcely thought of any other é4¢yyo¢ than that which He carried 
on in the first age, by means of the Apostles themselves. Yet that 
part of the question, which is of far the deepest interest and im- 
portance, is the éheyyos which He has been carrying on ever 
since, which He is still carrying on, and without which no soul 
would ever be rescued from the sin of unbelief, or would recognize 
the righteousness of Christ, or find a holy fear and a holy joy in 
the certainty that the Prince of this world has been judged. Now 
it is the vivid consciousness of this abiding power in the word of 
God, the assurance that it does not merely relate to the past, but 
no less to the present and the future, — that it is the same yester- 
day, to-day, and for ever, —this it is that gives such an incom- 
parable value to the expositions of Scripture by the great Reform- 
ers. How Luther felt that the Spirit was exercising His office of 
reproving the world no less mightily in his days than in those of 
the Apostles, we have seen above. Calvin’s exposition is excel- 


364 NOTE L. 


lent. “ He shall reprove the world, He says, that is, He shall not 
‘be confined to you, but His power shall extend from you to the 
whole world. Therefore they have the promise of the Spirit from 
Him, who was to be the Judge of the world, and through whom 
their preaching was to be quick and powerful, so as to bring into 
subjection those who had hitherto rejoiced in unrestrained indul- 
gence without fear or reverence. But it should be observed, that 
‘Christ does not here speak of hidden revelations, but of that power 
of the Spirit, which appears in the external doctrines of the Gos- 
pel and in the preaching of men. For whence is it, that human 
‘speech penetrates souls, takes root therein, and finally bears fruit, 
changing hearts of stone to hearts of flesh, and renewing men them- 
selves, unless because the Spirit of Christ gives it life? If it were 
not for this, it would be a dead letter, an empty sound, as Paul 
aptly teaches (2 Cor. iii. 6), where he argues that he is a minister 
of the Spirit, from the fact, that God was mechan to work pow- 
erfully by means of his teaching. The sense therefore is; when 
the Apostles should be endowed with the Spirit, they would be 
furnished with a heavenly and divine power, by which they could 
exercise authority throughout the whole world. But it is attrib- 
uted to the Spirit rather than to them, because they were to have 
no power of themselves, being only servants and instruments, but 
the Spirit alone was to rule in them. The term world compre- 
hends, I think, those who were to be truly converted to Christ, 
as well as hypocrites and reprobates. For the Spirit reproves 
men through the preaching of the Gospel in two ways. Some are 
seriously impressed, so that they willingly humble themselves, wil- 
lingly subscribe to the sentence by which they are condemned. 
Others, although they are convicted and cannot escape from the 
position of a criminal, yet do not heartily yield, nor submit them- 
selves to the authority and dictation of the Holy Spirit; nay, rather 
being constrained they inwardly fret, and in their perplexity cease 
not to cherish obstinacy of mind. Now we know how the Spirit 
was to reprove the world by the Apostles; for God made known 
His will in the Gospel, and consciences, smitten thereby, began to 
‘discover their own sins and the grace of God. For the word 
hey ye is here used in the sense of convincere, “to convince.” 
Not a little light is thrown upon the interpretation of this passage 
by what is found in 1 Cor. xiv. 24, where Paul writes thus: Jf 
all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one un- 


NOTE L. 365 


learned, he is convinced of all, and thus are the secrets of his heart 
made manifest. There Paul speaks particularly of one kind of 
reproving — since certainly God brings His own elect to repent- 
ance through the Gospel: but hence it clearly appears, how the 
Spirit of God in the sound of the human voice, causes men, not 
before accustomed to the yoke, to acknowledge and submit to His 

authority.” 

Beza, we have already seen, concurs with Calvin in interpreting 
EME ELV by convincere. Grotius says, “ We say that ITagoudy- 
tov is the Advocate of a cause: it is His office édeyysey tous 
avreheyovtas, to produce conviction of the righteousness of His 
cause.” Hammond, in the margin, renders the verse thus: and 
He, when He comes, shall convince the world, ete. Pole cites Lucas 
Brugensis, Piscator, Camero, Gerhard, and Camerarius, as giving 
the same translation of eheybec. Wetstein explains the verse, 
“The Holy Spirit — shall teach the disciples, that, after Jesus had 
appealed to a greater Judge, His cause had been tried anew by 
God himself, who had judged the accusers, the accused and the 
judge.” 

In Donne’s 34th Sermon, which is on our text, we find a long 
discussion on the meaning of reprove. “This word, that is here 
translated to reprove, arguere, hath a double use and signification 
in the Scriptures: first, to reprehend, to rebuke, to correct, with 
authority, with severity; So David, Ne in furore arguas me, O 
Lord, rebuke me not in Thine anger ; and secondly, to convince, 
to prove, to make a thing evident by undeniable inferences and 
necessary consequences: so, in the instructions of God’s ministers, 
the first is to reprove, and then to rebuke (2 Tim. iv. 2, see above 
p- 329): so that reproving is an act of a milder sense than rebuk- 
ing is. St. Augustin interprets these words twice in his works: 
and in the first place he follows the first signification of the word, 
that the Holy Ghost should proceed—by power, by severity, 
against the world. But though that sense will stand well with the 
first act of this reproof, — that He shall reprove, that is, reprehend 
the world of sin, — yet it will not seem so properly said, to repre- 
hend the world of righteousness or of judgment: for how is right- 
eousness and judgment the subject of reprehension? Therefore 
St. Augustin himself, in the other place where he handles these 
words, embraces the second sense: Hoc est arguere mundum, os- 

31* 


366 NOTE Ll. 


tendere vera esse quae non credidit: * this is to reprove the world, 
to convince the world of her errors and mistakings: and so (scarce 
any excepted) do all the ancient expositors take it, according to 
that, all things are reproved of the light, and so made manifest: the 
light does not reprehend them, not rebuke them, not chide, not 
upbraid them ; but to declare them, to manifest them, to make the 
world see clearly what they are, this is to reprove. ‘That reprov- 
ing them, which is warrantable by the Holy Ghost, is not a sharp 
increpation, a bitter proceeding, proceeding only out of power 
and authority, but by enlightening and informing and convincing 
the understanding. The signification of this word, which the Holy 


Ghost uses here for reproof, é4¢yvzog, is best deduced and mani- 
fested to us by the philosopher who had so much use of the word, 
who expresses it thus: Elenchus est syllogismus contra contraria 
opinantem: a reproof is a proof, a proof by way of argument, 
against another man, who holds a contrary opinion. All the pieces 
must be laid together : for first it must be against an opinion, and 
then an opinion contrary to truth, and then such an opinion held, 
insisted upon, maintained; and after all this the reproof must he 
in argument, not in force.” 

In Diodati’s French Bible our verse is rendered, And when He 
shall have come, He will convince (conveincra) the world of sin (de 
péché), and of righteousness, and of Judgment. The following note 
is subjoined, giving a good summary explanation of it. “ By Ilis 
hidden power, joined with the preaching of My Word, He shall 
impress upon the consciences of men, and especially of the ene- 
mies of My kingdom, as well as those within My church, and 
making false professions of My name and having knowledge of My 


* No reference is given in my edition of Donne, the octavo reprint ; but 
he is evidently referring to the Quaestiones de Novo Testamento, in the 89th 
of which the writer treats of our text, and says, “‘ Hoc est arguere mundum, 
ostendere illi vera esse quae credere noluit.”’, This work however is gen- 
erally recognized not to be by Augustin ; and the correctness of the deci- 
sion is manifest, not indeed from the discrepancy in the interpretation of 
this passage, —such diversities will always be found, and, it is to be hoped, 
far greater, when a man’s writings are spread over a surface of forty years, 
—but trom the total difference in the style and mode of thought, as well as 
from many points of detail. Still, as these Questions are by a contempo- 
rary, if not by a somewhat earlier writer, they are just as good evidence 
for the antiquity of the interpretation. 


NOTE L. 367 


Gospel, lively perceptions and convictions of sin ; inasmuch as they 
have rejected the gracious remedy which have been presented to 
them in Me: and so by the example of the Devil, their prince, 
already condemned without remedy, He shall hasten the certainty 
of their condemnation. And on the other hand He shall give to 
the children of God a very firm persuasion of the true righteous- 
ness, which I shall have procured for them by My death and per- 
fect satisfaction: the certain proof of which would be, that by vir- 
tue of it I myself shall have passed to a heavenly and glorious life, 
to take possession of it for Me and for all My church.” 

The same translation of é4é¢y£ee was also received by the Cath- 
olic Church in France. In Bossuet’s Méditations sur ? Evangile, 
that of the 19th day in the second part is on these words: And 
when He shall come, He will convince (conveincra) the world of 
sin (touchant le péché), of righteousness, and of judgment. “It is 
respecting this sin, and of this sin (of not believing in Jesus), that 
the Holy Spirit would convince the unbelieving world. Jesus 
Christ had convinced the Jews of this sin in two ways, one by ful- 
filling the prophecies, which is the most effectual method of ex- 
plaining them, the other by working such miracles as no one else 
had ever performed; which would deprive them of all excuse, in 
such a way, that there might be nothing wanting for conviction. 
And sometimes the Holy Spirit carries its work still farther: for 
instance, in the first place the work of prophecy. For the Holy 
Spirit inspired in St. Peter the proof of Christ’s resurrection drawn 
from David, which that Apostle, full of the illumination of the 
Divine Spirit, carried out to a full demonstration. — Secondly, as 
regards conviction by miracles the Holy Spirit has brought it to 
perfection. For if their source had been exhausted in Jesus 
Christ, men would have believed that it was transient and delusive 
in Jesus Christ himself: but as it continued with the Apostles 
who healed the sick publicly and in the sight of all the people, in 
testimony of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, conviction is reduced 
to an absolute certainty ; and the Holy Spirit has done this even 
to the last shade of evidence. This continuation of miracles was 
the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ had said, that He cast 
out devils by the Spirit of God; and all the other miracles ought 
to be as exclusively attributed to the Holy Spirit. The same mi- 
raculous gift continuing in the Apostles, men could see the suc- 
cession of God’s plans and a full confirmation of the truth.— 


368 NOTE lL. 


Since the Holy Spirit, in order to furnish to Jesus the witnesses 
of His resurrection, descended visibly upon the Apostles, reas- 
sured their courage, corrected their faults, endowing the ignorant 
and foolish with divine knowledge, and furnishing them words 
which shut the mouths of their adversaries ;— since, in place of 
the cowards which they were, who had wholly forgotten their Mas- 
ter in their flight, and the chief of whom blasphemed against Him, 
He had made them the intrepid defenders of His doctrine and His 
resurrection ;— since, in fine, not content with inspiring in them 
an understanding of the prophets, He even bestowed upon them 
the spirit of prophecy, and made them to act and speak like in- 
spired men ; —all these wonderful works of the Holy Spirit proved 
that Jesus Christ had spoken the truth, and gave assurance, that 
the Holy Spirit would, in a new and still more conclusive manner, 
convince the world of unbelief. Add to all these things the holi- 
ness, which the Spirit would establish in the church by effects so 
wonderful, and that perfect union of heart, which would be His 
peculiar work, and the sensible character of his presence. Add 
the fearful authority which God would confer upon the church, so 
that to lie unto Peter would be to lie unto the Holy Ghost. We 
may see sufficiently by all these things the power of the testimony 
of this same Spirit for producing conviction of unbelief.” All this 
is ingeniously and ably put, though in parts too much in the man- 
ner of an advocate; and too exclusive stress is laid on the outward 
evidence by which the Spirit was to produce His conviction. The 
conviction too, according to the narrow and shallow Romish no- 
tion of faith, is represented as little else than a mere conviction of 
the understanding in the way of argument, and thus falls far short 
of the conviction by the Spirit spoken of in the text; inasmuch as 
it is a conviction of the fitness of believing in Christ, not of the sin 
of not believing in Him. But at all events nothing can be more 
decided than Bossuet’s interpretation of éléyzéev as convincing: 
nay, he has gone too far in neglecting the other element in its 
meaning. 

Lampe, as usual, is full, so as almost to exhaust his subject; and 
much of what he says is sound and good. He explains EhEY ELV 
here, and in viii. 9, as designating “ the work of a teacher who de- 
monstrates truth, which before was not acknowledged, to the con- 
science even of an opposer, so clearly that he is compelled to yield. 
This work in its highest form is appropriate to the Holy Spirit 


‘ 
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7 
a 
“, 
: 
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a ee 


NOTE UL. 369 


He performs part of His office as Paraclete in this very conviction, 
while He pleads the cause of Christ before the world. And to Him 
emphatically is attributed conviction, é4eyyog. For He fills the 
office of a teacher and instructor among men, even among such as 
are blind by nature; not only ignorant of those things which are 
of the Spirit of God, but also not receiving, (ov deyouevoe 1 Cor. 
ii. 14) — rejecting through unbelief, and even opposing them with 
carnal reasonings. And this blindness is such that no human art 
can effect a cure. Wherefore the Holy Spirit by the clearest light 
of evidence, so penetrates the darkness of the understanding, that 
even the most obstinate will can no longer resist Him. Yet the 
power is not compulsory but convincing. He does not work as if 
pleading with a stump, but as if with a rational creature. He. 
works partly externally, and partly internally. Externally by the 
Word. Therefore the preaching of the Gospel, rightly performed 
ought to be considered a convincing by the Spirit himself. Often 
there are added special works of God, signs, judgments, through 
which the testimony of the word is corroborated by the Spirit. 
That these things should be considered of the greatest importance 
in effecting this conviction, we concede with Whitby and others; 
yet we do not stop here. None of these is able to produce a saving 
effect unless the internal operation of the Spirit is added. Now 
among the saving convictions, we enumerate these; that the Spirit 
by hidden power turns minds, so that they attend to the Word 
(Acts xvi. 14) ;—that He gives the soft and fleshy heart, which 
trembles and fears at a perception of its danger (Acts ii. 37, xvi. 
30) ;—that He so enlightens the intellect that, carnal prejudices 
being expelled, it acknowledges with a full conviction of conscience 
the true wisdom of the plan of salvation (Eph. i. 17, 18 );— that 
He instils a love of the truth and a desire to come to a clearer 
knowledge of it and to obey it, whence a saving faith is produced.” 

But the best explanation that I have seen, of the force of 
éleyyecv in this passage, is Luecke’s. The rationalist tendency to 
regard it as merely expressing the work of teaching and producing 
conviction by logical processes compelled him to bring out and in- 
sist on the other branch of the meaning. “ The testimony of the 
Holy Ghost in behalf of Christ over against the unbelieving world 
is mainly a refutation, é4¢vyog, a demonstration of the world’s 
wrong and error. ‘The whole preaching of the Apostles, as ad- 


370 NOTE M. 


dressed to the world, necessarily takes this polemical form: see 1 
Tim. v. 20, 2 Tim. iii. 16, iv. 2, Tit. i. 9, 18, ii, 15.— “Ldeyyeov 
always implies the refutation, the overcoming of an error, a wrong, 
by the truth and right. Now when this is brought before our con- 
science through the élevzo¢, there arises a feeling of sin, which 
is always painful: thus every éheyyos is a chastening, a punish- 
ment. Hence this office has been called the Strafamt of the Holy 
Ghost. The effect of the Holy Ghost’s ¢4eyyo¢ in the world may 
be hardening; but its aim is the deliverance of the world. The 
world, according to St. John, is the body of those who are not yet 
redeemed, who are still to be redeemed, not of the condemned. If 
the EhEyyos of the world is a moral process, its results may just as 
well be the conversion, as the non-conversion of the world. Thus 
alone did the éleyyog of the Spirit answer the end for which 
Christ came, or afford a cheering support to the Apostles. It is 
true, the xolovg, with which the éheyyos closes, is the condemna- 
tion, not however of the world, but of the Prince of the world.” 

Tholuck and Olshausen remark that in the word ééyyeuv the 
notion of convincing and that of reproving are mixed up together. 
So too Ackermann, in the Dissertation before cited, says, “ In refer- 
ence to the carnal-mindedness, which had gained such a domin- 
ion over the world, and which was without any feeling of God, or 
any submission to God, Jesus speaks of a punitive power of the 
Holy Ghost, in John xvi. 8. For éleyyéov in this place means 
more than to convince: it implies a breaking down and casting out 
of the whole power of ungodliness, both in the outward life of the 
world, and in the inner life of the conscience (p. 892).” This 
coincides entirely with the view taken in the Sermons: only it 
seemed to me that the Spirit’s permanent work, within the range 
of Christendom, was most adequately expressed, with reference to 
its threefold object, by convincing. 


Nots M: p. 62. 


There is no controversy, and little difference, about the trans- 
lation of the three words, which designate the subjects of the Com- 
forter’s threefold conviction. The Vulgate, Erasmus, Beza ren- 
der them by peccatum, justitia, and judicium. In English the 


NOTE M. 371 


Rhemish Version, as might be expected, retains justice for the 
second ; and the Latin word is more appropriate here than in many 
other cases: though even here the corresponding Saxon word 
better expresses the vital principle dwelling and working in the 
soul; while the Latin, in conformity to the predominant character 
of the language, and of the nation whose image that language 
reflects, relates rather to outward acts and conduct. The differ- 
ence is analogous to that which we find in the translations of the 
sixth beatitude, where, instead of the pure in heart, the Rhemish 
is led by the Vulgate, beati mundo corde, to put Blessed are the 
clean of heart. I trust it is neither unjust nor fanciful to look 
upon these two words as in some measure symbolical of the distine- 
tive characters of the Reformed Churches and of that of Rome, 
that is to say, so far as each answers to its peculiar principle and 
idea. The former seek purity, and cannot be satisfied without it, 
and therefore are always oppressed with a deep consciousness of 
impurity ; the latter aims at cleanness, which may be attained in 
a high degree, and by means of outward acts. So may justice ; 
but righteousness is unattainable. I do not mean that the Romish 
Church is altogether regardless of purity and righteousness, or the 
Reformed of cleanness and justice. Specific distinctions are sel- 
dom absolute, but relative, and are formed by the predominance 
of one or other of the constitutive elements, by the development 
of that which had been latent, the coming forward of that which 
had been in the background, the superiority of that which had 
been subordinate. Neither are the cleanness and justice incul- 
cated by the Church of Rome irrespective of purity and righteous- 
ness; nor are the purity and righteousness, the ideas of which 
were the beacon-stars of the Reformation, irrespective of clean- 
ness and justice. Indeed it would be utterly impossible for either 
to exist without some admixture of the other. But the error, 
which is the caricature. and corruption of each Church, and has 
evermore lifted up its head therein, marks its tendency by its 
main danger: and this in the Church of Rome has been the prone- 
ness to Pelagianism, in the Reformed Churches the aptness to 
run into Antinomianism. Our modern impugners and revilers of 
the Reformation have never duly recognized these main distinc- 
tions between the two great branches, into which the Western 
Church since that event has been divided. Hence they have gone 
blindly astray in their judgments upon each, blaming and prais- 


ove NOTE M. 


ing inconsiderately and irrelevantly, nay, at times blaming where 
they ought to have praised, and praising where they ought to 
have blamed; even as in their own theology they want to turn 
back the hands of the world’s great clock, and to pull us down to 
cleanness and justice, to the rudiments of outward acts and obsery- 
ances, —touch not, taste not, handle not,— instead of urging and 
helping us on to that inward purity and righteousness, which we 
are to seek from the Comforter, and which he alone can give. 

Wiclif renders the three words by synne and rightwisnesse and 
doom; for though he translated from the Vulgate, it is surprising 
how little Latin he ha’ mixed up with the Saxon element of our 
language. ‘Tyndall has synne, rightwesnes, and judgement. I 
know not how far one may rely in such a matter on the accuracy 
of the reprint of Coverdale, which gives synne, righteousnes, and 
judgement. At all events in the Quarto Bible printed by Graf- 
ton in 1553 these are the three words: so that here, at a period 
when great changes were going on in our language as well as in 
other things, and when many ancient forms were corrupted from for- 
getfulness of their original force, we see how the old English words 
rightwise and rightwisness, with which the readers ot Chaucer 
must be familiar, were transformed into righteous and righteousness 
from an erroneous notion that they belonged to that large class of 
adjectives in- ous, which have come to us from the Latin and 
French. 

This seems to be the fittest place for speaking of an interpreta- 
tion or illustration of this passage, which appears to have been sug- 
gested in the first instance by Grotius. After remarking that 
Tlaoazinrog is defensor causae, and that ééyzetv also is a fo- 
rensic word, “suitable to one who pleads a cause,” he adds, “so 
also what follow. For there are three kinds of suits; public 
trials of crimes, meg aucorias (of sin) or criminal suits; pri- 
vate trials of justice and equity, exavoovrn (righteousness), that 
is, equity suits; private trials with a certain form of law, zelosg 
(judgment).” In other words, Grotius compares the first é4ev70¢ 
to a criminal action, the second to a civil action at equity, and the 
third to a civil action at law. The criminal action még? &uagtias 
he explains thus: “When all these things which I have foretold 
concerning the mission of the Spirit shall have come to pass, it will 
appear that I am a prophet, by the rule, Deut. xviii. 22; and 


NOTE M. ove 


therefore, those who do not believe me must suffer the very severe 
punishments of the law of criminal cases, which is laid down in 
the same place, Deut. xviii. 19: and these judgments God will in- 
flict upon the Jews, before the eyes of the world, by the destruc- 
tion of the nation.” On the civil action at equity he says: “The 
nature of justice and right (which is to be understood by the word. 
OlLxALOOUVYG, i.e. righteousness) requires this, that rulers, although 
no law exists, should comfort the good who have suffered evil, by 
other good things, 2 Thess. i. 6, 7, Heb. vi. 10. Therefore the 
Spirit shows that God is a just Ruler, since He will have received 
me beyond all touch of evil, (for that is what He means by, Ye 
shall not see Me, vii. 36,) to the participation of His own majesty.” 
Finally the civil suit at law is set forth thus: “ Among suits 
(#@L0ElG), i.e. suits which are between parties, is the renowned lex 
talionis, Levit. xxiv. 20, that he who unjustly injures any one shall 
himself bear as much injury. The devil was the cause of Christ’s 
death: therefore, justly, by the sentence of God he has suffered 
what is the same as death to him, being dispossessed of his king- 
dom by the destruction of idolatry and of other vices, through 
the agency of the Holy Spirit. In so many ways, therefore, by 
the Holy Spirit as the most faithful of advocates, is the cause of 
Christ defended, not without the greatest profit to pious minds.” 
Unquestionably there is much ingenuity in the framing and 
working out of this notion: but I cannot perceive the slightest 
ground in the passage itself for supposing that it contains a ref- 
erence to the procedure in the Jewish courts of justice, such as is 
manifest on the face of the text in Matth. v. 22. And what 
ground had Grotius for assuming that this tripartite juridical 
scheme existed in Judea? As he has not adduced any, nor have 
the writers since his time who have adopted his conjecture, we 
may fairly believe that, as Lampe says, “ this whole distinction was 
known only in the brain of Grotius.” If we look at the details 
of the interpretation, it is very doubtful whether Deut. xviii. 19 
involves any mention of a criminal action. The words, I will re- 
quire it of him, refer rather to judgments, national and personal, 
such as the Jews brought on themselves time after time by their 
unbelief But if one leg of the comparison breaks down, the 
whole falls. Again, the meaning of dvxatoovry appears to be 
misapprehended by Grotius: this, however, will come before us 


o2 


O74 NOTE M. 


more appropriately in a subsequent Note. Moreover, if any one 
of the three actions looks especially fitted to be deemed a criminal 
one, it would rather be the last than the first: and as Henry More 
observes, though he adopts the interpretation, in his Mystery of 


" ‘ > 4 . 
Godliness (B. V. c. 12), “10 avrenenovdos seems something _ 


lame here, the members being so heterogeneal one to another ;” 
that is, with reference to the Lex Talionis, which Grotius makes 
the principle of his xgéorg. But the main objection to the inter- 
pretation is, that it degrades and contracts, or, so to speak, shrivels 
up the meaning of the whole passage, until all the precious truths 
of infinite length and breadth and depth and height contamed in 
it shrink into a mere puzzling, enigmatical statement of a historical 
fact. 

This, however, only rendered the interpretation more accepta- 
ble to Hammond, who is fond of taking the words of the New 
Testament in their lowest and' narrowest sense, and who thus, 
along with Grotius, must rank among the precursors of the ration- 
alizing exegesis of the next century. But before I turn to him, I 
would remark with regard to Grotius, that, when referring to his 
Commentary, I have often been reminded of the report that he 
had an inclination to joi the Church of Rome ; and it has seemed 
to me that the low, pragmatical, earthly view of the Gospel man- 
ifested therein, — as, also, in his elegant treatise De Veritate [e- 
ligionis Christianae, — affords a strong confirmation to that report. 
Protestantism requires that intense energy of faith and piercing 
insight into divine truth, wherewith St. Paul in the first age of the 
Church protested with such irresistible power against the inroads 
and usurpations of Judaism, and which was vouchsafed so largely 
in the great age of the Reformation. They who have these graces, 
must protest against the ordinances and rites, which are ever seek- 
ing to seat themselves on the throne of Faith and Truth. But 
when these qualities decay, when Faith is feeble and dwindles into 
a mere act of the understanding, and when there is no longer any 
vivid perception of spiritual realities, Protestantism is apt to be- 
come purely negative: a negative tendency takes possession of 
the whole mind: it criticizes, rationalizes, Socinianizes, sets up the 
abstractions of the understanding as the only forms of truth. Or 
else they who cannot rest in this negative state, whose hearts crave 
something positive, but whose faith is too weak to find what they 


NOTE N. 375 


want in Christ and His Spirit, regarding the great works which 
accompanied the foundation of Christianity as bygone and histor- 
ical, will readily turn to some outward institution and to outward 
ordinances, promising to supply them with that objective reality, 
which they cannot discern in the word of God, and in the convic- 
tion and communion of the Comforter. 

To return to Hammond: his paraphrase and long note on our 
text are an expansion of what Grotius says, without the addition 
of a single argument, merely stating prolixly and confusedly what 
Grotius had stated concisely and clearly. He does, indeed, also 
refer to Schindler’s Pentaglotton: but Lampe, quoting the passage 
cited, shows that only through a misapprehension of its meaning 
can it be supposed to countenance the Grotian dream. Hammond 
has, indeed, one advantage, that the conjecture, which in Grotius 
is captivating from its ingenuity, and which did captivate Henry 
More thereby, in him becomes wholly repulsive. Wolzogen too, 
in his Commentary on St. John, adopts the chief part of this in- 
terpretation, as indeed he is apt to follow Grotius, whose views are 
mostly very acceptable to a Socinian. Lampe also cites Possinus 
as having brought forward a modified form of this interpretation : 
but none of its advocates has done any thing to lessen its inherent 
improbability ; and we may safely adopt Lampe’s conclusion, who 
rejects it as utterly groundless. Indeed the recent commentators 
on St. John, so far as I am acquainted with them, have not even 
noticed it. 


Nore N: p. 62. 


‘Eay 02 mavres npogyrevowour, ElOELON O€ TLS anLOTOS 
7 lOLwrng, ELEY YET OL UNO MOVE MY, aVaLOIYELOL UNO NaVTMY. 
Here the ambiguity, or rather the fulness of meaning comprised 
in the word éd¢yyw has furnished occasion for a variety of inter- 
pretations, in all of which there may be a portion of truth: and 
these differences have been increased by the uncertainty as to the 
particular signification of meogyrevecy and éOvwtne in this pas- 
sage. 

With regard to meogytevety, the sense of our English deriva- 
tive from it, according to popular usage, is much narrower than 


376 NOTE N. 


that of the Greek verb; and we are involuntarily led thereby to 
fancy, whenever we meet with the word, that it was intended to 
convey the notion of a prediction of future events, such as can 
only be known by inspiration. This, however, was only a part of 
the prophetic office and gift, even under the Old Dispensation, and 
is still more inadequate to its idea in the New Testament, especial- 
ly where St. Paul speaks of it in his Epistle to the Church of 
Corinth. The true meaning of the word is well explained by 
Bleek, one of the best German biblical scholars, in an essay on the 
Gift of Speaking with Tongues, in the second volume of the 
Theologische Studien und Kritiken. After referring to the distine- 
tion which Plato in the Timeus draws between the pevees and the 
MOOG Nyt nS, and pointing out how nearly it coincides with that be- 
tween Aywooues hadety and moogyrevecy in this passage of St. 
Paul, he adds, “St. Paul, however, speaks of this as a special 
yaovouc, distinct, not only from the yiwooats Aadety, but, also, 
from the éouajveta yAwoour, so that noogytygs in him is not to 
be understood in the same sense as in the passage cited from Plato. 
But we should be no less far from the truth, if, with many of the 
modern interpreters, we refer the word merely to the singing of 
religious songs, or the exposition of the Jewish Prophets. ‘There 
is no reason why we should not take me0qyTéE vély in this passage, 
and in all others in the New Testament where Christian prophets 
are spoken of, in the same sense as the oogntéca of the Prophets 
of the Old Testament. It denotes the communication of all man- 
ner of knowledge, which has not been acquired in a natural way, 
by tradition, or by the perceptions of the senses, or by reflexion, 
but by immediate revelation. It does not matter whether that 
which is communicated in this manner be something future, or any 
thing else that is hidden, and that God wills to make known to 
man. The idea of prophecy even under the Old Testament is 
not confined to the announcement of the future; nor is this its es- 
sential element: nor again is the reference to the future, to that 
which is to take place according to God’s purpose, excluded from 
Christian prophecy: see Acts xi. 28, xxi. 11. This, however, is 
less brought forward here as the main point, which is rather the 
declaration of what is hidden in men’s hearts, and admonitions, 
exhortations, and warnings connected therewith. Only the 
moogytéevwy must always speak by reason of a divine revelation 


NOTE N. Ot 


granted specially to him:” pp. 57-59. To this explanation | 
Olshausen has added some good remarks in his note on 1 Cor. 
xiv. 1: “From the whole character and relative position of the 
Old Testament, it followed that the task of the prophets bore 
mainly on the revelation of the future. Every thing in the insti- 
tutions of the Old Testament, like the inward yearnings of all 
good men, pointed to that which was to come. Inthe New Testa- 
ment on the other hand this part of the prophetic office necessa- 
rily fell into the background, as men were living in the enjoyment 
of the completion of all the promises—In the New Testament the 
MOOGHL ELE appears principally as that gift of the Spirit, by which 
faith is awakened and aroused in the hearts of unbelievers.”* Thus 
the great subject of prophecy was the same under both Dispensa- 
tions, Jesus, the Incarnate Son of God; and under both Dispen- 
sations it was the gift of the same Spirit, even of the Comforter, — 
who, having reproved the world of sin and of righteousness and 
of judgment under the Old Testament, has entered upon His more 
blessed office of convincing the world thereof under the New 
Testament. 

As to the meaning of @Ocait7¢, which has been discussed of late 
years repeatedly, — for instance by Bleek in the Essay just cited, 
by Neander in his History of the Apostolical Church (p. 185), and 
by Heydenreich, Billroth, Rueckert, Olshausen, Osiander, in their 
Commentaries on this Epistle; —it does not seem to me that any 
one of them has quite clearly marked out a sense suited to all the 
three verses in this chapter (16. 23. 24), in which the word occurs. 
By Chrysostom, who is followed by Theophylact, (Ovotns in v. 
16 is interpreted Auézog, by Theodoret 6 év to Aaixw TOY MATL 
Tétuyuevosg. The agreement however among these three Fathers 
is not that of three independent witnesses, who had come to the 
same conclusion, each led by his own researches; for both Theo- 
doret and Theophylact very often do little else than transcribe, or 
abridge, or paraphrase Chrysostom. Olshausen follows them, and 
argues from this passage that the distinction between the Clergy 
and Laity must already have existed in the Church at Corinth: 
but this is a feeble groundwork for such a hypothesis, a ground- 
work too that soon slips away, inasmuch as this sense is inapplica- 
ble to the other passages in the New Testament in which @dcaz7¢ 
is found. The Fathers of the fourth, fifth, and eleventh century 

31 * 


378 NOTE N. 


seem to have transferred the relations of their own times, in this 
as in many other things, by a fallacy very natural in an uncritical 
age, to the first. Whether iOvwrng was ever used to denote a 
layman, I know not. Suicer quotes no examples for this sense, 
except those in which Theodoret and Theophylact interpret it as 
so used by St. Paul; and the need which the former finds to ex- 
plain the word by the analogy of the common soldier is a presump- 
tion that it would not have been intelligible without. In classical 
Greek the derivative sense bears witness of the Greek notion of 
the indispensableness of public life, even to the right development 
of the intellect: hence it signified a rude, ignorant person, 
answering nearly to a boor. Now this sense agrees with the 
context in Acts iv. 13: Now when they saw the boldness of Peter 
and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant 
(idccorat) men, they marvelled. So does it in the Second Epistle 
to the Corinthians, xi. 6, where St. Paul says of himself, but though 
I be rude (idvmtns) in speech, yet not in knowledge. Nor is it 
inappropriate in any of three passages in the 14th Chapter of the 
First Epistle. If we try to form a conception of the position of 
the early Church, we shall perceive that, as is the case at present 
wherever we have missions among the Heathens, besides the 
éxxAnota of those who were called to be saints through the knowl- 
edge of Christ, there were two classes of men with whom the 
Church came into contact, the antgrot, — who openly denied 
and resisted the new doctrine, whether from any lingering belief 
in their old false gods or from universal scepticism, or upon 
grounds of human reasoning, —and those who came to listen to 
the new teachers, without any prepossessions against them, and in 
many cases with prepossessions in their favor, by reason of the 
graces manifested in their lives. Of these there would be divers 
classes. Theodoret interprets idvmras in the 23rd verse to be 06 
auvytor and it would seem from the 16th verse that the catechu- 
mens were probably included under the name: since the écarae 
are spoken of as joining in the service, by saying Amen after the 
thanksgiving, and appear to have had a special place assigned to 
them; for I hardly think that 0 vy 
idustov can be a mere periphrasis without any special signifi- 
cance. The analogy of the Court of the Gentiles in the temple 
at Jerusalem would naturally lead to the appointment of a similar 


> ‘ Uy 
avanknowy Tov TOMOY TOV 


POP TARE Oe, 


‘ 
onl a TN 


Ship Sat ta 


NOTE N. 379 


place for the ¢dvcitae* and it is not unlikely that something of the 
kind had been usual in the synagogues in various parts of the world. 

Now in the 22d verse St. Paul says, first, that tongues were 
intended to be a sign, not for believers, but for unbelievers ; even 
as all miracles were, the main purpose of which was to be onueia, 
signs to startle men and draw attention to him by whom they. 
were wrought. For the notion that miracles have an argumen- 
tative and demonstrative efficacy, and that the faith of Christians 
is to be grounded upon them, belongs to a much later age, and is 
in fact the theological parallel to the materialist hypothesis, that 
all our knowledge is derived from the senses. St. Paul then adds, 
that prophesying is not for unbelievers, but for believers, that is to 
say, chiefly and primarily for those who have already received the 
first principles of Christian faith, but who, in order to grow there- 
in, need that those principles should be set forth with the power 
of the Spirit, as they expand through the gradations and ramifica- 
tions of Christian life. Nevertheless, he goes on to state, prophe- 
sying has also a use with reference to unbelievers, nay, a greater 
use than tongues. For if, when the whole Church was assembled, 
all were to speak with tongues, and a party of unbelievers or per- 
sons ignorant of Christianity were to come in, they would think 
that everybody was mad. But if, instead of this, all were to 
exercise the gift of prophecy, then if an unbeliever or an ignorant 
person should come in, he ts convinced of all, he is Judged of all. 
By these last words, those who, in the notion of prophecy, lay the 
chief stress on the supernatural knowledge of outward facts, con- 
ceive St. Paul to have implied that the UNLOTOS TLC 7) COLL S 
had come into the church with some specific malignant intention, 
and that this intention of his was detected by the prophets, and di- 
vulged to the whole congregation. Even Chrysostom speaks of 
this as though it were the main point. “ Lor he is convinced of 
all: that is, what he thinks in his heart is brought forward and 
exhibited to all: and, not like one who on entering sees this man 
speaking in the Persian and that in the Syriac, he on the other 
hand hears the secrets of his own mind, whether he entered with 
an evil purpose to tempt them, or with a good mind, and (he hears) 
that this or that has been done or devised by him.” And he refers 
to the instance of Sapphira. In all this however, as he is often 
wont, he narrows the meaning to that which was outward and 


380 NOTE N. 


temporary ; and he loses sight of that higher éievzo¢ of the Spirit, 
which alone was to be an abiding power in the Church, the con- 
viction of sin, not of any one or more evil purposes or actions, but 
of the sinfulness of our whole nature. This is the secret revealed 
and made manifest to the unbeliever or the idvumtns by the 
prophesying in the congregation: and thus is he brought to 
acknowledge the wisdom of God dwelling in the Church. How 
poor and superficial are such interpretations of Scripture, which 
are the prevalent ones among the Fathers when compared with 
those revelations of the inner man, and of the power of the Spirit, 
which were vouchsafed to the Reformers: Calvin illustrates this 
verse by a comparison with that in the Epistle to the Hebrews: 
The word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two- 
edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and 
spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and a discerner of the 
thoughts and purposes of the heart. Having thus got the 
right clue, he proceeds: “In respect to our present passage, it 
is not difficult now to understand what is meant by being con- 
vinced and by being judged. The consciences of men are be- 
numbed, nor are they affected with a hatred of their wickedness, so 
long as they are wrapped in the darkness of ignorance. But the 
word of God penetrates even to the innermost recesses of the soul, 
and asif a light were introduced, scatters the darkness and shakes 
off that deadly torpor. Thus therefore, unbelievers are convicted, 
because while they know their business is with God, they are 
seriously affected and become alarmed: they are also judged, 
because, (although before they might not, covered with darkness, 
perceive their own wretchedness and baseness,) now brought 
forth into the light, they are compelled to bear testimony against 
themselves. The unbeliever is convicted, I say, not because the 
Prophet pronounces judgment either in His own mind or publicly, 
but because the conscience of the hearer draws his own condem- 
nation from the doctrine. He who was before forgetful of himself 
is judged, because he looks into himself, and by examination 
becomes known to himself. In which case the declaration of 
Christ is pertinent, When the Spirit comes He will convinee the 
world of sin; and this is what follows immediately ; the hid- 
den things of his heart become manifest: for it does not mean, in 
my opinion, that his character is made known to others, but rather 


NOTE N. asl 


that his conscience is awakened, that he may know his own sins, 
which before lay concealed.” Thus does the great master quietly 
put aside one idle fancy after another, and walk on straightforward 
in the light of truth. : 

Among the lessons deducible from these verses, two are so di- 
rectly opposed to certain errors which have got into vogue with | 
the disciples of our newfangled theology, that it may not be use- 
less to point out how these errors are refuted thereby. In the first 
place it is well known to be a fashion nowadays to decry the holy 
ordinance of preaching. For as a man walking in the dark along 
a passage, when he has knocked his head against the wall on the 
one side, is pretty sure in the recoil to knock it against the wall on 
the opposite side, so is it with the world, and with the religious 
world as well as the rest. The undue, because exclusive, exalta- 
tion of preaching has been followed by an undue depreciation of 
it. Now this is not the place to examine into the various causes, 
lying in the present condition of the world, and in the present as- 
pect of the human mind, which have given such a paramount im- 
portance to preaching, and which no wise man will dare to disre- 
gard, however he may deplore them, or deem them morbidly 
excessive. I have only to remark here, what intelligent readers 
of the Bible must be well aware of, that preaching is that ordinance 
in the Church of later times, which answers to the prophesying of 
the Apostolic age. Its subject is the same, Jesus, the Incarnate 
Son of God, the Crucified Saviour of the world. Its purpose is 
the same, to set Him visibly before men’s hearts and minds, and 
by so doing to convince them of sin, and of righteousness, and of 
judgment. And if it be faithful, it will have the same power, the 
power of the Spirit. Thus it is especially fitted to be the instru- 
ment of converting the unbeliever: and few, I think, will ques- 
tion that, among all the means of grace, it has been the most 
efficacious in stirring the consciences of the aorot and dere, 
so that the secrets of their hearts have become manifest to them, 
and they have been brought to confess that the light of God’s 
truth dwells in .the word of the Gospel. This efficacy, indeed, 
with regard to unbelievers, the disparagers of preaching are 
mostly ready to acknowledge ;.and so they grant its usefulness for 
the conversion of the Heathens. But the calamitous delusions 
which have been propagated by the asserters of the magical 


382 ; NOTE N. 


power of the baptismal act, prevent their duly recognizing-what a 
vast proportion of ameoros and (ewrae is to be found in these 
days within the pale of the Church. Nor does St. Paul say that 


the sole use of prophesying is for unbelievers: he says the very 


contrary, that prophesying is not for unbelievers, but for believ- 
ers, that is, mainly and principally. He was not so ignorant of 
human nature as to suppose, that, because we have been buried 
with Christ by baptism into death, we may, therefore, dispense 
with any means of instruction or exhortation, in order that we 
may indeed walk in newness of life, and reckon ourselves dead 
to sin, but alive to God through Jesus Christ. Itis true, preaching 
is a work of the intellect: the highest faculties of the human mind 
can find no more suitable or worthier employment. But is this to 
render it a mere human work ? Is*this to exclude it from the in- 
fluence of the Spirit? Surely it was in men’s hearts and minds 
that God sent down His Spirit to dwell: and it is in the gifts and 
outpourings of the heart and mind that the graces of the Spirit 
are especially manifested. Yet many are far more willing to be- 
lieve that the power of the Spirit lies in outward acts and outward 
symbols. Thus the fetish-worshipper and the idolater have still 
their counterparts in Christendom. Nay, how many are there 
still, who share in the blunder of the Corinthians, and would deem 
the speaking with tongues a much surer proof of God’s presence, 
than all the preaching of faith and love! I am not referring 
specially to the Irvingites, who combined the exaltation of preach- 
ing with the opposite delusion. There are numberless cravers 
after onuera, beside the Irvingites; and there have been such in 
every age of the Church. There are the worshippers of the mere 
elements in the Sacraments. There are those who fancy the dead 
stones in God’s house more precious and momentous than the 
living. There are those who attach more importance to gestures 
and postures, to crossings and genuflexions, to surplices and copes, 
than to the doctrine of truth and the practice of love. There are 
those who long to see the presence of miracles, of onuéra and 
Gavuato, in the Church, and who, adopting the error of the 
Church of Rome, would regard these as a more certain token of 
the presence of God, than the prophesying of faith, the édeyyog 
of the Spirit. Prophesying, indeed, is only for a time, and will be 
done away, when that which is perfect is come; while prayer and 


NOTE N. 383 


praise and thanksciving will endure through eternity. Not that 
the inductive intellect is to be extinguished: but it will expand 
into the intuitive. Until, however, that which is perfect is come, 
—so long as there is any sophistry to be exposed, any misrepre- 
sentation to be corrected, any error to be refuted, — so long as 
there is any ignorance to be enlightened, any infirmity of purpose 
to be strengthened, — so long as men’s hearts and minds are sub- 
ject to the action of influences which draw them away from the 
path of divine Truth, — so long will it be necessary for the Church 
to wield the sword of the Spirit in combating all her foes through 
the sacred ordinance of prophesying or preaching, 

The other remark which I would draw from this passage of St. 
Paul, as pertinent to one of the extravagances of our days, relates 
to the criterion by which, here and in other places, the great 
Apostle measures the value of the various gifts and other means 
appointed for the edification of the Church, — their comparative 
utility or expediency with regard to that purpose. This idea runs 
through the whole passage, finding vent especially in that noble 
exclamation, I thank God, I speak with tongues more than ye all; 
yet in the church I would rather speak five words with my under- 
standing, that I might instruct others, than ten thousand words in a 
tongue. Alas! how perpetually has the Church, how perpetually 
have its individual members, acted in direct opposition to this 
magnanimous humility! In such a spirit much censure has lately 
been poured on that portion of our Church who have been desig- 
nated by the title of evangelical, because, in estimating the rela- 
tive importance of any ordinance or instrument of grace, they 
have looked almost exclusively to its serviceablenegs for the con- 
version and spiritual edification of their brethren, This has been 
condemned as a utilitarian spirit; and it has been said that they 
ought to have looked, not to such narrow, earthly objects as the 
good of human souls, but to the one grand object, which we ought 
always to set before us, the glory of God. A utilitarian spirit ! 
It would be difficult to produce a stranger instance of the manner 
in which we let ourselves be blown about by mere sounds. The 
wisest and best writers in our own country, in France, and in 
Germany, have been zealously erhployed during the last fifty or 
sixty years in denouncing that utilitarian spirit, which had set up 
a low, temporal, earthbound utility, as the test whereby to settle 
what is right or wrong, good or evil, among the laws and princi- 


. 


384 NOTE N. 


ples of the moral world. And now those who, rejecting all 

earthly aims and considerations, have made the eternal, moral 

and spiritual good of souls, their rule of judgment and of action, 

not with reference to principles, but to means, are called utilita- 

rians. Verily then St. Paul must be termed the first utilitarian. 

Nay, for what but this very purpose, which is thus disparaged with 

an odious name, did the Son of God shed His blood on the Cross? 

Here we perceive how intense man’s appetite for slavery is, see- 

ing that, when Wisdom, after long and laborious exertions, has 

delivered him from an error, he will take up the very weapon of 
his deliverance, and fashion new fetters out of it. On the other 
hand it is true that the glory of God is the noblest and worthiest 
object of human endeavor. But glory again is an ambiguous 
word, has a human as well as a divine sense; and these are far 
asunder as the poles. The natural man would never have con- 
ceived that the glory of God would manifest itself in the still, 
small voice. He wants something grand, splendid, pompous, — 
temples, mosques, and cathedrals, white and purple robes and pro- 
cessions, incense-offerings and solemn chants, things that strike 
the eye and the ear. Or he will require something that shall be 
strange and startling, repugnant to the common order of things, 
and to natural appetites and inclinations, — mortifications and 
flagellations, fakirs and hermits and dervishes, monks and nuns. 
Nay, he may blind himself into seeking the glory of God by that 
which is terrible and cruel and destructive, as Dominic and Alva 
and many of their colleagues may probably have done, and some 
who took part in the massacre of the Hugonots. It would seem 
too as if Attila, and other like hellhounds, had whetted their nat- 
ural thirst for blood, by persuading themselves that they were the 
ministers of God’s wrath, and were to spread His glory by the 
slaughter of millions of mankind. Hence there is great need that 
our minds should be disentangled from this natural confusion, of 
mixing up their own notions of glory with God’s: and we should be 
continually gazing upon the mirror presented to us in the Gospel 
and life of His Son, in order to learn where and in what God 
seeks and finds His glory. ‘Then shall we learn, as St. Paul 
learnt, that the best way in which we can labor to promote the 
glory of God, is by diligence in endeavoring to further the great 
work, which He especially desires to see, the salvation of souls, 
and their edification with all the graces of His Spirit. 


ee ee ee ens 
alt be “a = hy > go bm Ym 


ee St eae 


NOTE P. 380 


Nore O: p. 65. 


Tit. i. 9. LAvrsyouevoy rod uare ray Oayny niorov 
hoyov, iva dvvatog 7 nal magaxaheiy ey tj OwWaoxnahle 7) 
VyLatvovan zal TOUS avicheyortag éleyyetv. This verse is 
rendered by Tyndall, And such as cleveth unto the true worde of 
doctryne, that he maye be able to exhorte with wholsome learning, and 
to improve them that saye against it. Improve seems here to be 
nearly equivalent to disprove or refute. Tyndall’s translation, 
with slight variations, is retained in our subsequent Bibles down 
to the Authorized Version, where it is considerably altered thus: 
Holding fast the faithful word, as he hath been taught, that he may 
be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gain- 
sayers. Here two material improvements have been made. ‘O 
HOTA THY Ovayny MLOTOS hoyos is not the true word of doctrine, 
but the true or faithful word as received by teaching: and éy a 
Ov0aoxahlcr TH uyLatvouon is much better expressed by sound 
doctrine, than by wholesome learning. At the same time the latter: 
part of the verse has been misrendered, in a manner that obscures,. 
if it does not pervert, the sense, which is, that he may be able both 
to exhort, (or rather to instruct,) in sound doctrine, and to convince: 
(or to refute) the gainsayers. Our Version seems to make the: 
main part of the ministerial office consist in dealing with gainsay- 
ers ; whereas the more important part of it, the instructing éy ry. 
OWacnahia rH Uylatvovon, pertains mainly to the training of” 
the believing members of the Church. This clause in the Greek. 
depends merely on the verb negoxadety, not on Eley yey. 


Note P: p. 65. 


Donne, in speaking on this point, in his 35th Sermon, pours out: 
a strain of that rich eloquence in which his prose-writings abound.. 
“This one word, arguet, He shail reprove, convince, admits three: 
acceptations: First, in the future, — He shall: and so the cum 
venerit, when He comes, signifies antequam abierit, before He de- 
parts. He came at Pentecost, and presently set on foot His com-. 
mission by the Apostles, to reprove, convince the world of sin, and. 


33 ins 


386 NOTE P. 


hath proceeded ever since by their successors in reducing nation 
after nation: and before the consummation of the world, before 
He retire to rest eternally in the bosom of the Father and the 
Son, from whom He proceeded, He shall reprove the whole world 
of sin, that is, bring them to a knowledge that, in the breach of 
the law of nature, and in the cuiltiness of original sin, they are all 
under a burden, which none of them all of themselves can dis- 
charge. This work St. Paul seems to hasten sooner. To con- 
vince the Jews of their infidelity, he argues thus: Have not they 
heard the Gospel? They, that is, the Gentiles; and if they, much 
more you: and that they had heard it he proves by the applica- 
tion of those words, Their voice is gone through all the earth, and 
their words to the end of the world ; that is, the voice of the Apos- 
tles in the preaching of the Gospel. 

“ Hence grew that distraction and perplexity which we find in 
he Fathers, whether it could be truly said that the Gospel had 
been preached over ail the world in those times. If we number 
the Fathers, most are of that opinion, that before the destruction 
of the Temple of Jerusalem this was fulfilled. Of those that think 
the contrary, some proceed upon reasons ill grounded, particularly 
Origen: ‘ What of the Britains and Germans who have not as 
yet heard the Gospel?” For before Origen’s time, —in what 
darkness soever he mistook us to be, we had a blessed and a glo- 
rious discovery of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in this island. St. 
Jerome, who denies this universal preaching of the Gospel before 
the destruction of the Temple, yet doubts not but that the fulfilling 
of that prophecy was then in action, and in a great forwardness. 
“We perceive it is now fulfilled, or must soon be fulfilled ; — nor 
do I think any nation now remains, which is ignorant of the name 
of Christ.” 

“ The later divines and the School, that find not this early and 
eeneral preaching over the world to lie in proof, proceed to a more 
safe way, that there was then odor Evangel, a sweet savor of the 
Gospel, issued, though it were not yet arrived to all parts; as ifa 
plentiful and diffusive perfume were set up in a house, we would 
say the house were perfumed, though that perfume were not yet 
come to every corner of the lrouse. But, not to thrust the world 
‘nto so narrow a strait, as it is when a decree is said to have gone 
out from Augustus to tax all the world, — for this was but the Ro- 
man world;—nor, that there were men dwelling at Jerusalem, 


Se tab PY 
Sie i ata 


epee) 


; NOTE P. 387 


devout men, of every nation under heaven,—for this was but of 
nations discovered and traded withal then ;— nor, when St. Paul 
says that the faith of the Romans was published to the world, — for 
that was as far as he had gone ; — those words of our Saviour, The 
Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a wit- 
ness to all nations ; and then shall the end come, have evermore by 
all ancient and modern Fathers and schools, preachers and writers, 
expositors and.controverters, been literally understood, that before 
the end of the world the Gospel shall be actually, really, evidently, 
effectually, preached to all nations: and so, cwm venerit, when the 
Holy Ghost comes, that is, antequam abierit, before He go, He shall 
reprove, convince, the whole world of sin, and this, as He is a 
Comforter, by accompanying their knowledge of sin with the 
knowledge of the Gospel for the remission of sins. 

“Tt agrees with the nature of goodness to be so diffusive, com- 
municable to all. It agrees with the nature of God, who is good- 
ness, that, as all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, 
and the windows of heaven were opened, and so came the Flood 
over all, so there should be diluvium Spiritus, a flowing out of the 
Holy Ghost upon all, as He promises, I will pour it out upon all, 
and diluvium gentium, that all nations should flow up to Him. For 
this Spirit spirat ubi vult, breathes where it pleases Him: and though 
a natural wind cannot blow east and west, north and south to- 
gether, this Spirit at once breathes upon the most contrary dispo- 
sitions, upon the presuming, and upon the despairing sinner, and 
in an instant can denizen and naturalize that soul that was an alien 
to the Covenant, empale and inlay that soul that was bred upon 
the common amongst the Gentiles, transform that soul which was 
a goat into a sheep, invite that soul which was a lost sheep to the 
fold again, shine upon that soul that sits in darkness and in the 
shadow of death, and so melt and pour out that soul that yet un- 
derstands nothing of the Divine nature, nor of the Spirit of God, 
that it shall become partaker of the Divine nature, and be the same 
spirit with the Lord.— Shall any man murmur or draw into dis- 
putation why this Spirit doth not breathe in all nations at once? 
or why not sooner than it doth insome? Doth this Spirit fall and 
rest upon every soul in this congregation now? May not one man 
find that He receives Him now, and suffer Him to go away again ? 
May not another, who felt no emotion of Him now, recollect him- 
self at home, and remember something then which hath been said 


a 


388 NOTE P. 


now to the quickening of this Spirit in him there? Since the 
Holy Ghost visits us so, successively, not all at once, not all with 
an equal establishment, we may safely embrace that acceptation 
of this word, arguet, He shall, He will, antequam abierit, before the 
end come, reprove, convince, the whole world of sin, by this His 
way, the way of comfort, the preaching of the Gospel.” 

This extract from Donne is sufficient in this place to explain 
‘the meaning of the word %000¢, which in the text, as in so many 
other passages in the New Testament, has been misunderstood 
and misinterpreted, so as to afford a prop for divers errors, some 
of them of no slight nioment, at least from the days of the Dona- 
tists downward. In like manner Perkins, in his Treatise of Con- 


science, contending against the blasphemous proposition, that they 


who had never heard of Christ were to be condemned for not be- 
lieving in Him, says, that “some of the schoolmen” had supported 
that proposition by this text: as though the declaration that the 
Holy Ghost shall judge the world of sin, because they have not be- 
lieved in Christ, implied that condemnation on account of this sin 
was to pass on all mankind from the beginning, and in every region 
of the earth. To which he answers, that “by the world we must 
not understand all and every man since the Creation, but all na- 
tions and kingdoms in the last age of the world, to whom the 
Gospel was revealed.” Works, vol. 1. p. 523. 

Tittmann, following in the wake of the dull Rationalism of the 
last generation, would confine %06u0¢ here to Judea. “In this 
‘passage, as in all the discourses of our Lord, we may assume, that 
by Tov xdGp0», is to be understood the Jewish world especially.” 
Of this shallow interpretation I shall have to speak in Note ae 
He might have learnt better from Lampe, whose work, had it 
"been more studied, would have preserved many of the subsequent 
commentators from much ignorance and absurdity. “Here in a 
swider sense (he says) than in preceding clauses, the term world 1s 
to be received for all the Jewish and Gentile worlds.—In this 
‘sense the world was reconciled to God by Christ: 2 Cor. v. 19, 
John i. 29, 1 John ii. 2. The same (the world) was given to 
Christ for a possession by the testament of the Father: Ps. u. 8. 
He was to be the true heir of the world as the antitype of Abra- 
ham. Therefore it was right that He should be adapted to this 
end by the Spirit.” 


NOTE Q. 389 


Note Q: p. 93. 


Each part of the threefold work of the Comforter, as briefly set 
forth in this passage of St. John, has furnished occasion for a di- 
versity of interpretations; which, as the subject is one reaching 
down to the living centre of Truth, exhibit the characters of dies 
various Schools in Theology. In speaking of our immediate text, 
Chrysostom, as he is wont on such points, takes the narrower and 
more superficial view, looking almost exclusively at that conviction 
which was to be wrought by means of signs and wonders and other 
external proofs. “And when by Him (the Comforter) these 
things take place, and better instruction and greater signs, by 
how much more shall they be condemned, seeing such things 
coming to pass in My name: which, indeed, makes the proof of 
the resurrection more explicit. For now they are able tosay, He 
is the son of the carpenter, whose father and mother we know; 
but when they see death destroyed—evil driven out— natural 
lameness cured — demons expelled — the extraordinary agency of 
the Spirit —and all these things coming to pass by My invocation, 
what will they say ? and this shall convince of sin, that is, shall cut 
off every apology from them, and show that they have committed 
unpardonable sin.” In this argument it would seem to be implied 
that the outward miracles wrought by the Apostles were greater 
than our Lord’s. More effectual, indeed, they were in producing 
conviction: this, however, was not on account of any higher de- 
monstrative power lying in them: it was a consequence of that 
very conviction of sin which the Spirit awakened. When men 
were pricked in their hearts, then they were ready to recognize the 
truths, of which the miracles were the signs. Besides the advo- 
cates of this exposition forget that, when a man has been brought 
by a train of reasoning to acknowledge a proposition, which he 
had previously denied, he does not say, How wicked Iwas! but, 
at the utmost, How foolish I was, not to see this before! Only 
when the miracles were carried home to the heart by the demon- 
stration of the Spirit, convincing men of the divine character, of 
the rightcousness, of Him, by whom, and in whose name, they were 
wrought, did they also serve to arouse the conviction of the sin of 
having rejected Him. Nevertheless, Theophylact, as usual, does 
little else than transcribe Chrysostom. “He shall convince the 

33 * 


390 NOTE Q. 


world of sin and shall show men that they are sinners, because 
they believe not; for when they see by the hands of the disciples 
in the Spirit supernatural signs and wonders happening, and will 
not even then believe, how can they be unworthy of condemna- 
tion, and not be guilty of the greatest wickedness ? Their unbe- 
lief is without excuse, while the Spirit performs such things in 
My name.” 

Among later divines this view has been adopted by many ; for 
instance, by Grotius, and by Bossuet, as is seen in the passages 
already quoted in pp. 372 and 367. In like manner Hammond 
loses all the power and “depth of our Lord’s declaration, that the 
Comforter will convince the world of sin, because they believe not 
in Me, by paraphrasing it thus: “Ife shall charge it with the 
crime of not believing in Me, by the gift of tongues, etc., evi- 
dencing that I, that am to be preached by that means, am indeed 
the true Messias, and so likewise by the fulfilling those predictions 
which now I give you.” If any one wishes to see into what a 
maze of dulness this may be expanded, he may read that portion 
of Hammond’s note, which refers to the Comforter’s convincing 
the world of sin. Even the meagre rationalism of such men as 
Kuinoel,—who reduces the meaning of the promise to “that 
Helper, shall so influence My despisers through you and your 
teachings, that they shall know and be obliged to confess them- 
selves sinners, because they have rejected my doctrine; thus you, 
assisted by Divine power, shall convince them of unbelief,’— is 
scarcely so repugnant to the spirit of Christianity, inasmuch as it 
implies a conscience and a sense of moral truth in the mind, to 
which the conviction is to be addressed. : 

On the other hand Augustin, who had a much profounder in- 
sight into the Scriptural meaning and power of Faith, and the 
sinfulness of unbelief, discusses our text in his 143d Sermon. 
« The medicine of all the wounds of the soul, and the only propi- 
tiation for the sins of men, is to believe in Christ. Nor can any 
ye purified, either from original sin, or from the sins which they 
add in not resisting carnal concupiscence, unless by faith they are 
united and joined to the body of Him, who was conceived without 
any carnal enticement, and who did no sin, neither was guile found 
in His mouth. For believing on Him, they become the sons of 
‘God; because they are born of God by the grace of adoption, 
which is by the faith of Jesus Christ. Of this one sin then, He 


NOTE Q. 391 


would have the world convinced, that of not believing on Him: 
evidently, because by believing on Him all sins are loosed, He 
would have this one imputed, in which the others are involved. 
And because by believing they are born of God, and become sons 
of God: for, He says, to them gave He power to become the sons of 
God, even to them that believe on Him. Whosoever, then, believes 
on the Son of God, in so far as he adheres to Him, and becomes - 
himself also by adoption a Son and heir of God,—in so much he 
does not sin. Whence John says: Whosoever is born of God, 
stnneth not. And hence this is the sin of which the world is con- 
vinced, that they do not believe on Him. This is the sin of which 
He likewise says: If I had not come, they had not had sin. For, 
indeed, had they not other sins innumerable? But by His coming 
this one sin was added to those who believe not, by which the 
others should be retained. But because this sin is wanting in be- 
levers, all other sins are forgiven. For no other reason does the 
Apostle Paul say: all have sinned and come short of the glory of 
God ; that whosoever believeth on Him should not be confounded. 
Therefore when He speaks of the unbelief of the Jews, He does 
not say, “ Because if some of them have sinned, shall their sin 
make the faith of God of none effect?” For how could He say, 
“if some of them have sinned,” when He said Himself: for all 
have sinned? But He says, if some of them have not believed, shall 
thew unbelief make the faith of God of none effect? That he might 
point out this sin more expressly, by which alone the door is closed 
against others, lest they should be remitted by the grace of God. 
Of which sin alone the world is convinced by the coming of the 
Holy Spirit, that is, by the gift of His grace which is given to the 
faithful.” 

There is a far clearer perception of Christian truth in this pas- 
sage; though, according to the general character of Augustin’s 
writings, it is wanting in philosophical precision, accumulating a 
variety of explanations, without clearly marking out the right one, 
or showing how they are to be reconciled. This defect is still 
more apparent in the 144th Sermon, which is on the same text, but 
evidently written at a different time. In it he says, “ The desire 
arises in us of knowing, why He says the Holy Spirit will convince 
the world of this alone, as if it were man’s only sin not to believe 
in Christ: but if it is evident that there are many other sins of 
men beyond this unbelief, why of this alone will the Holy Spirit 


392 NOTE Q. 


convinee the world? Is it because all sins are retained by unbe- 
lief, and remitted by faith; wherefore God imputes before others 
this one, by which it happens that the others are not forgiven, 
while the haughty man refuses to believe on a humble God? For 
thus it is written: God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the 
humble. Of sin, therefore, unbelievers, that is, the lovers of the 
world, are convinced; for they are signified by the term 
world, —- of no other sin than that they do not believe on Christ. 
Finally if this sin does not exist, no sins will remain, because to 
him who is justified by a living faith all sins are remitted. But 
there is much difference, whether any one believes in the ex- 
istence of Christ, and whether he believes in Christ. For the 
Devils believe in Christ’s existence, yet Devils do not believe in 
Christ. He truly believes in Christ, who both hopes in Christ 
and loves Christ. For if he have faith without hope and love, he 
believes Christ to exist, yet does not believe in Christ. Therefore 
he who believes in Christ, by believing in Christ, Christ comes 
into him, and in a certain manner is united to him, and is ren-’ 
dered a member in His body. Which thing could not be done 
except hope and love were present.” 
These passages sufficiently prove that, according to Augustin’s 
g, and 
more powerful, than mere belief. Yet even he did not set the 
true idea of Faith clearly and distinctly before his mind, any more 
than any other divine in the long interval between St. Paul and 
Luther. In the Commentary of ‘Thomas Aquinas, which is 
assuredly a most favorable sample of the exegesis of the Middle 


conception, Faith is something much higher, more livin 


Ages, the explanations of Chrysostom and Augustin are set side 
by side, but without any attempt to exercise judgment by giving a 
preference to either, or to elicit the portions of the truth which 
each had inadequately expressed. In fact, notwithstanding the 
extraordinary subtilty exhibited by many of the Schoolmen, and 
the genius which manifested itself during the Middle Ages in 
divers regions of thought and art, the human mind in many re- 
spects was still in its nonage, under tutors and governors until the 
time appointed by the Father. : 

In Anselm’s Treatise De Concordia Gratiae et Libert Arbitrit 
(c. vii.), the question is discussed, “ Why are those condemned, 
who receive not the Word of God, when they are unable to do so 
except by grace directing their will ?” and this discussion is found- 


NOTE Q. 393 


ed on our text. “ For the Lord says concerning the Holy Spirit: 
LHe shall convince the world of sin, because they believed not on Me. 
Though it may perhaps be difficult to answer this, yet so far as I 
am able, by the assistance of God, I ought not to remain silent. 
It is to be remarked that the inability which arises from guilt can 
be no excuse while the guilt remains. Wherefore in infants, in 
whom God requires that righteousness from human nature, which 
it received in our first parents together with the power of perpetu- 
ating it in their whole race, He will not accept the inability of 
possessing righteousness as an excuse, since human nature fell into 
this impotence on account of guilt. Since, then, the race forsook 
righteousness by sinning, that inability which it produced in itself 
by sinning is charged to it as asin. Not only the inability of pos- 
sessing righteousness, but also the inability of knowing it, in 
like manner, in the case of unbaptized persons, is accounted sin; 
for it equally arises from sin. We are able also rationally to 
assert, that because man’s nature has become deteriorated and 
corrupted from the original dignity, power, and excellence of his 
condition, sin is imputed to it. For thereby, it has diminished as 
much as it was able to do, the honor and glory of God. For in 
proportion to the dignity of a work is the wisdom of the Artificer 
praised and proclaimed. By as much, therefore, as human nature 
diminished and polluted in itself the precious work of God, by 
which He was to be glorified, by so much did it dishonor God. 
Which act was imputed to it as asin so creat, that it could not 
be destroyed except by the death of the Son of God. Sacred 
authority indeed sufficiently shows, that those passions or appe- 
tites to which we are subject, as brute beasts, on account of the 
sin of Eve, are imputed as sin. For when the Lord says of the 
mere passion of anger, unaccompanied by word or act: Whoso- 
ever is angry with his brother, shall be in danger of the judgment. 
He clearly shows the guilt not to be of trivial importance, which 
is followed by so weighty a condemnation, viz.: that of death. 
And when Paul says of those who are sensible of lusts of the 
flesh working against their will: There is therefore now no condem- 
nation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the 
Jiesh, 1. e. do not consent in will, without doubt He signifies, that 
those who are not in Christ, seek their condemnation as often as 
they are sensible of carnal desire, although they walk not accord- 
ing to it. For man was so formed that he ought not even to feel 


~ 


394 NOTE Q. 


sucha desire. If any man therefore will diligently consider what 
Thave said, he can by no means doubt, that those who are unable 
to receive the word of God on account of their own guilt, may be 
properly reproved.” 

This passage, although there must needs be a ground of deep 
truth in whatever proceeds from one of the greatest masters in 
Theology, contains two or three questionable positions, which 
seem to border closely on awful errors. Indeed it can hardly be 
otherwise, when the processes of logic are employed to draw 
inferences from the mysterious realities of religion: for in every 
reality there is something which logic cannot appreciate, and 
through the neglect of which the conclusions deduced by logic 
concerning its formal verities become more or less inapplicable. 
In the first place Anselm’s remarks, in their bearing on God’s 
justice, are warped by that proneness, which is so grievously com- 
mon among divines, to close their eyes against the light of con- 
science, and against that idea of Justice and Right, which is one 
of the pole-stars of the human mind; and to pare and screw down 
the notion of Justice into accordance with the scheme of propo- 
sitions which they have built up into their theological system. It 
has been contended indeed by many, that we can have no correct 
conception of Justice, except what we derive from the Bible: so 
fond are men of pampering their sloth and self-sufiiciency by 
assuming that they have the only key to all knowledge in their 
hands, and that every thing else is naught. But, without stopping 
to argue against this debasing fallacy, — which all history and 
philosophy and poetry and the laws of all nations refute, —or to 
show how the reverse is implied in every page of the Bible itself, 
speaking, as it everywhere does, to the reason and the conscience, 
it is sufficient to call to mind that sublime question, Shall not the 
Judge of all the earth do right? that is, Shall He not do what shall 
be recognized to be right by man’s reason and conscience? ‘This 
question, be it remembered, is one which: man was permitted to 
ask, and that too beneath the early dawn of Revelation, when 
divine Truth was just beginning to exercise its informing power 
upon the understanding: nor do we read that this question was 
regarded as presumptuous, but on the contrary that the Judge of 
all the earth vouchsafed to give ear to it, and to justify His ways. 

Moreover we should never allow ourselves to lose sight of the 
ereat principle declared by St. Paul, that, in all cases in which 


— es 


FE ee a ne Se, 


ee 


—— 


NOTE Q. 395 


God can be contemplated as reckoning with man, the scale of this 
reckoning will be according to what a man has, and not accor ding 
to what he has not: and we must scrupulously beware of repre- 
senting God, after the manner of so many, as dealing with men 
like a sophist or a juggler, making believe that tidy: have what 
they have not, and that they have not what they have. It may 
indeed happen that inferences, which we regard as legitimately 
deduced from other coordinate scriptural truths, will seem to mili- 
tate against this principle: but let us rather distrust our logic 
‘than our conscience, and be assured that such inferences, how- 
ever correct. they may appear, must in some point or other have 
started aside like a broken bow. Let us never doubt that no man 
will be condemned by the All-righteous Judge for the want of that 
which he could not have had. Our condemnation will be, and is, 
that we have not that which we might have had, and that we have 
a clinging, crushing weight of sin, which we have gathered and 
Beaped upon ourselves, which benumbs all our efforts, and palsies 
all our faculties, and from which, if we had given ear to the 
exhortations of our better monitors, inward and outward, we 
might have been free. 
Again in what Anselm says about God’s glory, and its being 
impaired by the sinfulness of man, there is a leaning toward +h 
notion that God’s glory is shown forth by the qualities of His 
works, rather than in the manifestation of His own Holiness and 
Righteousness and Truth and Mercy and Love. The remark too 
on our Lord’s words Concerning anger implies an indistinct appre- 
hension of that great evangelical truth, that the essential sinful- 
ness of sin lies in the heart, in the inward feeling when indulged, 
and not merely in the outward act, of which alone Law can take 
cognizance. Finally it is any thing but a legitimate conversion of 
St. Paul’s words, to say that there is condemnation to those who are 
not in Christ Jesus, even though they do not walk according to the 
Jjiesh. If we look at the whole passage connectedly, we shall 
perceive that they who are not in Christ Jesus, and have not the 
power of the Spirit to support them, cannot do otherwise than 
walk according to the flesh, through the infirmity of their will, 
by reason whereof they do that which they allow not, and do not 
that which they would. 
Lauler, in his sermon on our text, merely speaks of the Spirit 
as reproving sin, without reference to the particular sin, of which 


396 NOTE Q. 


it is here declared that He was to convict the world. But what 
he says has his characteristic depth. “He will reprove them for 
their sins. What are their sins? Now know that the eternal 
God made all things, and appointed each for its right end. Thus 
He made fire, that it should rise up, and stones, that they should 
fall down. Thus nature has given to the eyes to see, to the ears 
to hear, to the hands to work, and to the feet to walk ; and thus 
each member is obedient to the natural will, without any opposi- 
tion, whether the matter be easy or hard, sweet or sour, if so be 
that the will thoroughly wills it; thus too the members are thor- 
oughly obedient, even when it is an affair of life or death. This 
appears often in many lovers of this world, how they cast away 
all ease merrily and joyfully, and riches thereto, and honor, for 
that which they so wantonly and foolishly love, to the end that 
their carnal lust may thus be satisfied. Now the Spirit says in us, 
Who in this age is thus obedient to God, and thus exact in all His 
commandments, giving up himself and all earthly things accord- 
ing to His will? though God verily ought to be our Ruler. This 
Sin the Holy Ghost reproves, when He comes, that man so 
greatly and so often resists this Divine Will and its good admoni- 
tions. This sin, and many hidden offences, the Holy Ghost 
rebukes, when He comes to a man. ‘This rebuke works a 
quick, sharp, hard judgment in a man, and a hellish pain, and an 
intolerable woe, whereof worldly men, who live according to 
nature, know little. This is one of the surest signs that the Holy 
Ghost is in truth present. When this judgment is indeed borne, 
the case is safe. For a thousand offences, which a man truly 
acknowledges and confesses himself to be guilty of, are not so 
perilous and so mischievous to him, as a single offence, which thou 
wilt not recognize, nor allow thyself to be convinced of. Now 
know, those spiritual men, who are so much pleased with them- 
selves, with what they do and what they do not, are all in danger- 
ous sin; and nothing will ever come of such self-willed men.” 
Thus here again, if we desire to dive into the mysterious depths 
of meaning contained in this declaration concerning the Com- 
forter, we must come down to the age of the Reformation. 
Luther explains it with his usual fulness and energy. ‘“ What (he 
asks) is the Holy Ghost to rebuke ? Christ mentions three things, 
and says, He shall rebuke the world by reason of sin, and of right- 
eousness, and of judgment; and He Himself explains what He 


NOTE Q. 397 


means. They are dark words, however, and a strange speech, to 
those who do not understand, and are not used to the Scriptures. 
But to those who know the doctrine of the Gospel concerning 
Christ from the writings of the Apostles, especially of this Evan- 
gelist John, they ought not to be strange or unintelligible. 

“The first thing is: He will rebuke the world Jor sin, because 
they believe not in Me. What is this? Is not sin already rebuked 
and condemned in the world? Who does not know that adul- 
‘tery, murder, stealing, ete., are wrong? Have not even the 
Heathens forbidden and punished such things? What need we 
then the Holy Ghost to rebuke sin? But what manner of sin is 
this of which he speaks, that they believe not in Me? Has He 
nothing else to rebuke ? It is plain, He does not speak of those 
sins, which the world sees and rebukes. This He shows sufti- 
ciently by those words, that they believe not in Me: for who ever 
heard that this is to be the sin which condemns the whole world, 
the not believing in Christ ?— Seeing however that this rebuke 
for sin is to pass upon the whole world, universally and without 
distinction, and that no one is to be exempted, be he who he may, 
it follows that the sins for which all men are to be rebuked by the 
Holy Ghost, must be different from those which are notorious, 
and recognized by the world. For one cannot rebuke every- 
body on account of these; since there are many who live so that; 
no one can reprove or blame them, but all the world must praise: 
them as honest, honorable, nay, as upright, who not only avoid: 
sin, but also exercise themselves in a handsome, honorable walk,. 
and in good works. Should you ask however, What sin have. 
they? or, What is rebuked in them? Christ makes answer, that 
they believe not in Me. Here stands in brief what makes them 
all sinners, and condemns them; and all is comprised in this one 
thing, they are without the faith and knowledge of Christ. Thus 
they are shortly and roundly concluded under sin, so that one 
need not seek long and ask, Which, and what manner of sin is to 
be rebuked in each? or How many various sins may there be? 
Here you have it all in one word, that this one thing is rebuked 
in all at once, and is the sin of the whole world, that they are 
without Christ, or have not faith. 

“Therefore the meaning of these words is briefly, that the 
Holy Ghost shall pass this Judgment on all mankind, as they are: 
found upon earth, be they Gentiles or Jews, guilty or innocent 

34 


398 NOTE Q. 


before the world, and on all that they do and are, even on what 
they deem the best and greatest holiness, that they are and must 
continue under the wrath and condemnation of God, and that 
hey cannot be delivered from this, unless they believe in Christ. 
Let who can, come and boast of his or other men’s honesty, vir- 
tues, good works, and holy life: here you are told that it is 
nothing worth, when the Holy Ghost, with His breath, that 1s, 
through the office of preaching, (as Isaiah says, xl. 7), breathes 
and blows upon it. For this rebuke passes upon all, so that all 
their glory must fall, and whatever they do or may be cannot 
avail them before God. This He does by the mouth of St. Paul, 
near the beginning of the Epistle to the Romans, where He casts 
all, both Jews and Gentiles, under sin, and says that for this rea- 
son was the Gospel revealed from heaven, that all the world might 
be forced to confess themselves guilty of sin. For, he says Gi. 
93), there is no difference ; for all have sinned, and come short of 
the glory which they ought to have before God. With this word all 
the glory and pride of men is smitten to the ground. ‘They may 
have the glory of being mighty, noble, learned, -well-behaved, 
praiseworthy rulers, honorable, honest folks; nay, they may be 
called holy before the world, and may have such glory and advan- 
tage as St. Paul gives to the Jews, that they are God’s people, the 
children of the holy patriarchs, that they have the law and prom- 
ises of God, and that Christ was to be born of them: but what is 
all such glory, if they have not the glory which they ought to have 
before God? What have they, if they have not God ? — that 
they must be eternally lost. 

“Do you ask, Why! how can this be? What is wanting in 
these things, that they are of no worth before God? Is all this to 
be matter of condemnation, their being well-behaved, honest, hon- 
orable folks, governing well and laudably, not stealing, robbing, or 
committing adultery, but living chastely, orderly, obediently, and 
performing many good works according to the Law? Are not 
all these excellent gifts of God, and praiseworthy virtues? Ay, 
verily, that say we 100, and teach moreover, that God has com- 
manded these things, and that it is His will that men should live 
thus, and be honest. Why then is this rebuked here, and turned 
into sin? ‘There is another Judge, who judges all men’s lives and 
souls, and has much sharper eyes to see sin and to rebuke it, than 
we can understand or conceive. This Judge says, that all are sin- 


NOTE Q. 399 


~ 


ners, and to be rebuked for their sin. Him surely we ought to 
believe, and to grant that He speaks rightly and truly: for He re- 
bukes us also on account of this very blindness, that we do not see 
or perceive how we with all our doings are sinners before God. 
“You must know however that He is not speaking here of 
men’s outward life and conduct, which the world can weigh and 
judge, but that He pierces inward to the very bottom of the heart, 
which is the source and fountain where the true main sin lies hid, 
such as the worship of false gods, neglect of God, unbelief, disobe- 
dience, evil concupiscence, and resistance against God’s command- 
ments, in short, what St. Paul (Rom. viii. 7) calls being fleshly 
minded ; to which he gives the title and name, that it is enmity 
against God, and cannot be subject to the law of God. This is the 
stem and the root of all other sins, the very prime sin which we 
inherit from Adam out of Paradise, so that, were it not for this, 
there would never be any robbery, or murder, or adultery, ete. 
Now the world does indeed see these outward evil deeds, nay, 
wonders and complains that people are so bad, but knows not how 
it comes to pass. It sees the stream of water flowing along, and 
all manner of fruits and leaves sprouting out of the evil tree; but 
whence the fountain flows, and where the root lies, it knows not. 
It sets to work and tries to remedy the matter, to check wicked- 
ness, and to make people good, by laws and the lash of punish- 
ment. But although this may last a long while, nothing is pro- 
fited thereby. The course of the waters may be checked; but the 
main source is not stopped: the suckers may be cropped off; but 
this does not take any thing from the root. Now it is lost labor, 
it is of no avail, so long as one checks and patches and heals out- 
wardly, while the stem and root and source of evil abides within. 
The first thing to do is to stop the source, to take away the root 
of the tree: else it will break and burst out in ten places, when 
you have stopped and checked it in one. The cure must be rad- 
ical: else you may smear and cover over everlastingly with oint- 
ments and plasters; the wound will keep on inflaming and fester- 
ing, and only become worse. In fine, experience teaches, and the 
world must confess, that it cannot even check outward gross vices 
and misdeeds, although it represses and punishes them with all its 
might; as indeed it ought to do. Much less can it take away that 
sin, which lies inwardly in man’s nature, and which is the main 
sin, but which the world knows not. | 


400 NOTE Q. 


“ Therefore this sin abides over the whole world; and this judg- 
ment passes upon all that may be thought and done by all men, 
as they are born of Adam, be it evil or good, right or wrong, in 
the eyes of the world. Nor can any one escape here, or boast 
above another; but all are alike before God; and all must confess 
themselves guilty, and worthy of everlasting death and condem- 
nation; and all must have remained eternally therein; nor could 
any counsel or help against it have been found in any creature, if 
God had chosen to deal with us according to our merits, and to 
His justice. But now, forasmuch as out of His unfathomable good- 
ness He took compassion upon this our misery, He sent Christ, 
His dear Son, from Heaven to counsel and help us; in order that 
He might take our sin and condemnation upon Himself, and might 
atone for it by the offering of His Body and Blood, and reconcile 
God to us. And He gave commandment that this should be 
preached in all the world, and that this Christ should be set before 
all mankind, so that they might cleave by faith to Him, if they 
would come out of sin, God’s wrath, and eternal condemnation, to 
redemption and reconcilation, and to the kingdom of God. 

‘Thus this sermon has two parts: first it sets before all the 
world, that they are all under sin and wrath, condemned by the 
Law, and requires that we should acknowledge this; next it 
shows how we may obtain redemption from this state, and favor 
with God, namely, by this one means, that we take hold of Christ 
by faith. 

‘But, when this sermon begins, then comes forth the true sin 
which is spoken of here, and which that sermon produces, namely 
that they believe not in Me. For the world will not listen to this 
sermon, that they are all to be sinners before God, and that their 
righteous deeds are of no worth before Him, and that only through 
this crucified Christ can they obtain grace and salvation. This 
unbelief in Christ then becomes the all-embracing sin, which brings 
men into condemnation, so that there is no remedy. 

“ Even before, as I have said, unbelief was the main sin in all 
men, the beginning and the first sin in Paradise’ itself, and will 
continue doubtless the last of all sins. For when Adam and Eve 
had God’s word, which they ought to have believed, and when, so 
long as they clave thereto, they had God and life therein, they 
were assailed in the first instance by unbelief in this word. Yea, 
said the serpent to Eve, hath God said, ye shall not eat of every 


Ss 


NOTE Q. 401. 


tree in the garden? Here he makes his first thrust against her 
faith, so that she may leave hold of the ‘word, and not esteem it as 
God’s word. For what he cared chiefly for, was not the eating of 
the forbidden apple, but to bring them out of the faith whens 
they lived before God, into unbelief: ; from which, he knew, would 
follow disobedience and all sin, as its fruits. 

‘The unbelief however, spoken of in the text, is not merely | 
that which is planted by Adam in man’s nature, but plainly this, — 
that men believe not in Christ, that is, when the Gospel of Christ 
is preached, in order that we may nuit our sins, and through 
Christ seek and obtain grace. For when Christ came, the sin of 
Adam and of the whole human race, namely, their, previous un- 
belief and disobedience, was taken away before God by Christ’s 
sufferings and death; and He built a new Heaven of erace and 
fechead: so that the sin which we have inherited from Adam, 
shall no longer keep us under God’s wrath and condemnation, if 
we believe in this Saviour. And henceforward he who is con- 
demned must not complain of Adam and of his inborn sin: for 
this Seed of the woman, promised by God to bruise the head of the 
serpent, is now come, and has atoned for this sin, and taken away 
condemnation. But he must cry out against himself, for not hay- 
ing accepted or believed in this Christ, the devil’s Head-bruiser 
and Sin-strangler. 

“Thus every man’s danger rests with himself; and it is his own 
fault if he is condemned; not because he is a sinner through the 
sin of Adam, and avec of condemnation by reason of ie for- 
mer unbelief; but because hie will not accept this Saviour Christ, 
who takes away our sin and condemnation. ‘True it is indeed that 
Adam has condemned us all, inasmuch as he brought us along 
with him into sin, and under the power of the devil. But now 
that Christ, the second Adam, is come, born without sin, and has 
taken away sin, it can no longer condemn me if I believe in Hin ; 
but I shall be delivered from it through Him, and be saved. If 
on the other hand I do not believe, the same sin and condemna- 
tion must continue; because He who is to deliver me from it is 
not taken hold of: nay, it will be a doubly great and heavy sin 
and condemnation, that I will not believe in this dear Saviour, by 
whom I might be helped, nor accept His redemption. Thus all 
our salvation and condemnation depend now upon this, whether 
we believe in Christ, or no. A judgment has at length gone forth, 

34% 


402 NOTE Q. 


which closes heaven against all such as have not and will not re- 
ceive this faith in Christ. For this unbelief retains all sin, so that 
it cannot obtain forgiveness, even as faith removes all sin. And 
hence without this faith every thing is and continues sinful and 
condemnable, even in the best life and the best works which a man 
can perform; which, although in themselves they are praiseworthy 
and commanded by God, yet are corrupted by unbelief, so that on 
account thereof they cannot please God; even as in faith all the 
works and life of a Christian are pleasing to God. In fine, with- 
out Christ every thing is condemned and lost; in Christ every 
thing is good and blessed ; so that even sin, which continues in our 
flesh and blood, being inherited from Adam, can no longer hurt 
or condemn us. 

“This, however, must not be understood as if leave were here- 
by granted, so that men may freely sin and do evil: for, because 
faith brings the forgiveness of sins, and Christ is come to take 
_away and destroy sin, it is not possible for any man to be a Chris- 
tian and a believer, who lives openly, carelessly, and impenitently, 
in sin and according to his lusts. For where there is such a sinful 
life, there is, also, no repentance: but where there is no repent- 
ance, there is, also, no forgiveness of sins, and consequently no 
faith, which receives the forgiveness of sins. Whereas he who has 
the belief in this forgiveness, strives against sin, and does not fol- 
low its lusts, but wars against it until he is entirely free from it. 
And although in this life we cannot become wholly free from it, 
and sin continues ever even in the holiest of men, yet the believer 
has the consolation that this is covered for him by the forgiveness 
of Christ, and will not be reckoned for his condemnation, if so be 
he continues in the faith of Christ. This is what St. Paul says, 
that there is no condemnation for them that are in Christ Jesus, who 
walk not after the flesh; and again, They that are Christ’s have 
crucified the flesh with its lusts. You see, to these it is said that 
sin shall not harm nor condemn them: to those who are without 
faith and reckless, nothing is here preached.” 

In giving such long extracts from Luther, in this and other 
places, I have not been induced solely by the admirable clearness 
and force of the passages cited, but, also, by a wish of showing by 
comparison how far superior his expositions of Scripture are, in 
the deep and living apprehension of the primary truths of the 
Gospel, to those of the best among the Fathers, even of Augustin. 


__— ea 


were ees: 


NOTE Q. 408 


Much, indeed, of what is here said by Luther, is now become fa- 
miliar, mainly through his influence, and that of his brother Re- 
formers, to all readers of religious books. But if we would do 
justice to any of the master minds in history, we must compare 
them with their predecessors: for one of the surest marks of a 
great heaven-sent teacher is, that the truths which he is commis- 
sioned to teach, become in course of time more and more a part of - 
the intellectual patrimony of mankind. But when we come upon 
these truths in Luther, after wandering through the dusky twilight 
of the preceding centuries, it seems almost like the sunburst of a 
new Revelation, or rather as if the sun, which set when St. Paul 
was taken away from the earth, had suddenly started up again. 
Verily, too, it does one good, when one has been walking about 
among those who have only dim guesses as to where they are, or 
whither they are going, and who halt, and look back, and turn 
aside at every other step, to see a man taking his stand on the 
eternal Rock, and gazing steadfastly with unsealed eyes on the 
very Sun of Righteousness. An additional motive in this last in- 
stance for not cutting short the extract sooner is, that the con- 
cluding paragraph is a proof, though only among ten thousand 
which might easily be adduced, of the utter groundlessness of the 
charge of Antinomianism, which has been brought against him by 
his modern revilers. 

Calvin’s note on our verse is brief, and does not set forth as 
clearly as Luther how the root and ground of all sin is unbelief: 
but he has always something valuable to say, and says it well. 
“In the first place it is to be noticed, that the judgment of the 
Spirit begins by a demonstration of sin; for this is the beginning 
of spiritual teaching, that men begotten in sin have nothing in them 
except the elements (materiam) of sin. Moreover, Christ men- 
tions unbelief, in order to show what in itself is the nature of men. 
For we are without Him, and separated from Him, until we be- 
lieve, since faith is the chain with which He unites Himself to us. 
These words, therefore, have just as much weight as if He had 
said: When the Spirit shall come, He will show and convince 
men, that without Me sin reigns in the world. Hence unbelief is 
here named because it separates us from Christ, and so works that 
nothing except sin is left to us.” 

In Cartwright’s note on this passage we again find how difficult 
it was to attain to a clear insight into the radical sinfulness of un- 


AOL NOTE Q. 


belief. He sees that this particular manifestation of unbelief was 
very heinous, but does not see with the same distinctness how un- 
belief lies at the root of all sin. “ Here it is to be observed, that 
of all sins none is more base and dreadful than unbelief, as it is the 
parent and root of all others. They had uttered many awful re- 
proaches against Christ; but all these lie buried, as if in silence, in 
the presence of unbelief. So Heb. i. 18, 19, although they were 
guilty of many kinds of wickedness, nevertheless they are said to 
have been excluded on account of unbelief alone. Nor wrong- 
fully, since he who believes not on the Son, makes God a fA 
1 John v.10. This may be illustrated by an example from among 
men, especially those who punish this offence with death, and by 
the blood of him who reproaches them with falsehood. This, in- 
deed, was always a heinous crime, yet now it is much more heinous 
under the Gospel. For after so many promises made, and so great 
fidelity in fulfilling those most precious promises respecting His 
Son delivered to death, it becomes the gravest of all sins to doubt 
the faithfulness of God. Again, since God, who spake in times 
past by prophets, hath now spoken by His only Son (Heb. 1.1, 2), 
it becomes by hie circumstance itself a heavier sin to detract one 
the faithfulness of His words. Finally, if it be a great wickedness 
not to believe a threatening God, as Jeremiah charged upon the 
people: Fear ye not My hand? v. 22, 23, much more will it bea 
ereat sin not to believe God when making promises. We see this 
in the Acts of the Apostles, when Peter most boldly reproves the 
perfidy of the Jews.” 

Lampe speaks of the conviction we had already been wrought 
by the Spirit in earlier ages of the world. “It is true, that He 
hath convinced the world even from the beginning. His striving 
with the antediluvian world is related in Gen. vi. 3; with the Jews 
in Is. i, Heb. iii. 7, 8. Nor has the conversion of a sinner ever 
taken place without the conviction of the Spirit. But as all His 
operations in the New Testament were to be more illustrious, so 
also His convincing of sin. For the conviction of the Spirit im the 
New Testament is much clearer, because the mysteries of salva- 
tion are more fully revealed ;— much more efficacious, breaking 
through with peculiar power all the opposition of false reasoning 
(2 Cor. x. 4, 5);— much more universal, pertaining not only to 
the Jews but even to the whole world, to kings themselves and 
judges of the earth. (Ps. ii. 10.) Hence Is. ii. 4, says concerning 


NOTE Q. 405 


the law of Messiah coming out of Zion, by the ministry of the 
Spirit: And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke 
many people; which prophecy is quite parallel to our passage. 
Comp. Mich. iv. 4, and Is. xlii.1: He shall bring forth judgment 
to the Gentiles, and 4. And thus the Spirit of God was mystically 
to brood upon the waters.” 

On the conviction of sin he says: “ Concerning sin the Saviour 
speaks indefinitely. I should think, therefore, that not this or that 
sin, but the universal state of sin, the stain as well as guilt of it, by 
which the whole world is oppressed, is to be understood. For 
since in the following verse mention is made only of a distinct sin, 
namely, unbelief, that is to be regarded only as an example, as one 
of a thousand.” (Another proof how slowly men have been 
taught to discern that primary truth, which Luther so fully appre- 
hended and so clearly enounced, that faith is the ground of all 
good in man, and the want of faith the ground of all evil.) ‘“Con- 
viction of sin implies a clear perception of its deformity and 
damnableness; moreover, that one descends into his own heart 
and discovers his own vileness; and struck by this discovery 
loathes his own baseness, greatly fears the danger, and perceives 
the impotence of his own struggling. This conviction is of the 
highest necessity. Without this knowledge of misery and sin no 
desire of salvation follows, no glory will redound to God for the 
work of redemption. — But for this the ministry of the Holy Spirit 
was required. For the world knows nothing beyond the light of 
the Word concerning the origin of sin from the fall of our first 
parents; nor concerning the subjects of it, because these are not 
only external deeds, but also inward thoughts and the very first 
movings of evil concupiscence. The Apostle confesses this igno- 
rance, Rom. vii. 7. Nor does the presentation of these truths out- 
wardly by means of the Word suffice, unless all subterfuges, by 
which the flesh endeavors to palliate its own inclination to sin, be 
at the same time removed by the efficacy of the Spirit. — 

“ Conviction of the want of faith in Jesus was the work of the 
Holy Spirit. Other sins could be demonstrated from the law and 
the light of nature. — But a knowledge of this presupposed that 
the life and salvation of a sinner rested in Christ alone, whence 
was inferred the wretched state of those who were not united to 
Him by faith. Of this without the Word nothing could be known 
to the world.— And the Word alone, without the Spirit, did not 


406 NOTE Q. 


lead to conviction among the Jews, who heard it and saw signs, 
and yet remained in unbelief. This conviction was about to take 
its rise from the Jewish world, when the Apostles should demon- 
strate to the conscience that Jesus was the Christ,—that there 
was no salvation in any other, and hence their crime was very ag- 
gravated, because they not only were disobedient to the voice of 
the Lord, but even brought Him to the cross. And it was then to 
pass to the Gentile world, when they would be taught, that they 
had hitherto been.strangers to the way of propitiating the true 
God, and therefore hedged in by the grossest darkness and misery. 
And this conviction of deficiency in faith was most suited to point 
out the general dominion of sin in all men. This was a very 
strong argument: he that believeth not on the Son is under the 
condemnation and yoke of sin. The whole world believeth not. 
Experience teaches the minor premise. There were other more 
special sins: but this rendered all liable to punishment. So all 
are shut up together in unbelief, that God might have mercy upon 
all, Rom. xi. 82. Each part of the major premise is also true. 
For Christ is the only one, who can free from the curse of sin by 
His blood, and from its tyranny by His Spirit. Therefore those 
have no part in this freedom, who are not united to Christ by 
faith. (John iii. 36,1 John v.12.) Yet this argument affected the 
Jews in one way and the Gentiles in another. The Jews were 
preéminently guilty of unbelief, and this their sin was of itself the 
most heinous of all; and there was danger that they would die in 
their sins (John viii. 24), unléss they repented. But that very 
thing was the index of the depravity of the Jews. For how was 
it possible, that they should have been blind to so great a light, ex- 
cept they were completely bound by the dominion of sin ? — It 
came to pass, that this unbelief rendered all the righteousness, 
which they sought from the law, detestable, —all their sacrifices, 
impure. — Nor was this a less effective weapon for wounding the 
Gentiles with a knowledge of sin. For while the unbelief of the 
Jews was discovered to them, it was an evidence to the Gentiles, 
how long sin had hitherto reigned in the world. At the same 
time their own lack of faith was discovered to them, since though 
their guilt had not been so great in itself, still this unbelief 
ameotia, had excluded them from all means of grace. Since 
they were without Christ, they ought to infer that they were 
also strangers to the covenant of promise, without .God,—and by 


ee ae a ee 


NOTE Q. A0Q7 


nature the children of wrath, Eph. ii. 8, 12.. Nevertheless they 
were not free from all blame in this matter. For their fathers, 
from the love of sin, had inwardly blotted out the tradition of 
Messiah, which they had received from the Patriarchs: and from 
this forgetfulness were begotten those awful sins, into which the 
Gentile world had fallen. Rom. i. 21, seq. Moreover, this want 
showed them the sinfulness of all their actions, even though 
apparently good, because without faith it is impossible to please 
God: Heb. xi. 6, Rom. xvi. 23. Tow forcibly and happily th 

Apostles might use this argument after the effusion of the Holy 
Spirit the event has taught, with respect to the Jews, Acts ii. BY 
ii. 14, 15, 19, iv. 11, 12; as regards the Gentiles, Rom. i. 28, ete.” 

Even in Matthew Henry there is still a good deal of vagueness 
in the attempt to determine why unbelief should be the sin of 
which the Spirit convinces the world. “ The Spirit in conviction 
fastens especially upon the sin of unbelief, their not believing in 
Christ. Jirst, as the great reigning sin. There was and is a 
world of people that believe not in Jesus Christ; and they are 
not sensible that it is their sin. Natural conscience tells them 
that murder and theft are sin; but it is a supernatural work of 
the Spirit to convince them that it is a sin to suspend their belief 
of the Gospel, and to reject the salvation offered by it. Natural 
religion —lays— us under this further obligation, that whatever 
divine revelation shall be made to us at any time, with sufficient 
evidence to prove it divine, we accept it, and submit to it. This 
Jaw those transgress, who, when God speaketh to us by His Son, 
refuse Him that speaketh; and therefore it is sin. Secondly, as 
the great ruining sin. Every sin is so in its own nature; no sin 
is so to them that believe in Christ; so that it is unbelief that 
damns sinners. It is because of this that they cannot enter into 
rest, that they cannot escape the wrath of God: it is a sin against 
the remedy. Thirdly, as that which is at the bottom of all sin: so 
Calvin takes it. The Spirit shall convince the world that the true 
reason why sin reigns among them, is because they are not by 
faith united to Christ.” 

Luecke aptly remarks, that in this explanation of the triple 
Eheyyos by three similarly worded propositions, the unexpressed 
subjects of the aaotic, Otxatoovyy, and zolots are determined 
in each case by the explanatory propositions; that is, 7eg? ouao- 


408 NOTE Q. 


tiag taY OU MUGTEVOYTOY (vov “OOMOV), TEGL dexatoovyns 
fou (tov UmayOVEOS 7 908 tov ITateoa), négl H01GE OS TOU 
GOYOVTOS TOU %06u0u tovtov; and that the triple Ore deter- 
mines the substance and ground of the triple eleyyog. Of the 
first €4eyyoS however his exposition is very narrow. ‘The Par- 
aclete will convince the world of its sin, so far as it does not 
believe in Christ: that is, the world will be brought by the Holy 
Spirit to the consciousness that its unbelief is sin, is wrong; so 
that it will give up the delusion spoken of in v. 2.— The Para- 
clete finds the world unbelieving, — ov iSite ea at- 
tacks this unbelief as a sin, which the world does not deem it.” 

Here, where we require a spiritual eye for truth, Olshausen is 
far superior. ‘In the first place the Spirit makes sin manifest, 
not however in its outward characters, —in this respect the Law 
awakens the knowledge of sin (Rom. iii. 20), — but in its inward 
deep root. Now this is nothing else than unbelief, which we may 
call the mother of all sinful actions: but unbelief itself is, in its 
most glaring form, unbelief in the Incarnate Christ. The ina- 
bility of recognizing this purest manifestation of the Divinity im- 
plies utter blindness.” 

In Stier’s Observations on our Lord’s Discourses, one of the 
most precious books for the spiritual interpretation of the Gospels, 
the deep meaning of this passage is brought out more fully than 
by any other commentator. ‘Here we have the counterpart of 
the truth enunciated in xiv.17; and that previous declaration 
receives an important limitation. The same world, which cannot 
receive the Spirit of Truth, because it sees Him not, nor knows 
Him, is yet to discover that He is working upon it, speaking to it, in 
the first place testifying against it. Hence its incapacity for receiving 
the truth is not to be regarded as absolute or unchangeable. The 
same Spirit of Truth, through whose coming in the first instance 
the broad separation between the world and the disciples, between 
unbelievers and believers, is manifested and defined, is neverthe- 
less striving at the same time to remove this separation. or His 
coming and working is the last stage in the Divine Economy of 
Grace, before the Day of Judgment: Acts i. 20. Here is still an 
escape for many others, whom the Lord will call. The last, most 
powerful, most heart-piercing, most decisive call to salvation be- 
gins, no otherwise than Christ’s and that of all the prophets, with 


NOTE Q. 409 


Repent ye! When, by the rejection of Christ, the last stage of 
unpardonable guilt, of incurable sin, of inflexible hardness has 
been attained, and that which is said in ec. xv. 22-25 is accom- 
plished in its full sense, — this however is far from being the case 
with all,"as the sequel shows,—then the work of the Spirit is to 
bear witness of sin, and to announce the J udgment. For the day 
of the Holy Ghost,—the third after the economy of the Father 
and the Son, as is indicated in its type, exod. xix, 10) JJ —246 
the antitype of the last day, as well as the preparation for it. 
When the sin of Israel and of Meathendom, having filled its first 
measure, was visited, not by the fire of a wrathful J udgment, but 
by the surpassingly gracious testimony of the Spirit, with its fiery 
signs and its inward fervor, then began that judgment of the 
nations unto peace, of which Isaiah speaks as the purpose to be 
accomplished among the Heathens (ii. 3, 4), and as the beginning 
and end of Israel (iv. 3, 4). The saying which is so often misun- 
derstood and perverted, that the history of the world is the j udg- 
ment of the world, is realized in this working and judgment of the 
Spirit, this last preparation for the J udgment which will reveal 
all things, and which is reserved for the Son, at His final personal 
manifestation, as the Spirit has pointed to Him. Whatever faith. 
or unbelief the Spirit finds existing upon earth, He does not leave 
just as itis, but trains it up and purges it, subjects it to His trials, 
to the end that faith may be perfected in knowledge and life, or, 
if it shrink from this, may be brought to shame, — and that unbe- 
hef may ripen for the Judgment through the total blasphemy and’ 
rejection of the Spirit, or may allow itself to be subdued to repent- 
ance and obedience. The object of these progressive operations, 
which bring on the final Judgment in the great trial of the world 
by the perfecting of sin or of righteousness, by the last conviction. 
of both in their actuality, is clearly expressed at the close of Scrip- 
ture, in that Book which above all others must be termed the 
Book of the Spirit, calling, alluring, judging man, previous to the 
end. From these hints with regard to the scheme of the Bible, 
which is no other than the scheme of the Divine Government and 
ordering of the world, as already made manifest, we may gain a. 
deeper insight into the fitness of the dispensation, that the three- 
fold és 7705 should belong to the coming of the Spirit. This tes- 
timony or conviction of the Spirit, which, while it is a typical or: 
preparatory punishment, and an actual judgment, is yet an ac~ 
30 


410 NOTE Q. 


quittal of all such as submit willingly to this judgment, is the only 
possible mode of expressing the final sentence. “Edeyyecv is not 
equivalent to uaorugery in xv. 26; for witness is borne of that 
which is good and right, concentrated in the words aégi éou; 
whereas conviction 1s of that which is evil and false, by the reveal- 
ing of sin, and the overthrowing of false righteousness. But it 
should not be overlooked that this é4¢vyecv throughout is only 
intended to perfect that waorugery, and to complete its victory, 
—according to the deepest sense of the prophecy cited in Matt. 
xil. 20,—that the Spirit is the last gift of God’s grace to the 
world, to the end that the world, — or at least every one in it who 
will, — may be saved. He who penitently confesses, [am guilty, is 
acquitted. For the Spirit does not merely convince of sin and 
of judgment, as we should have supposed and expected that these 
two things are immediately connected with each other, and that 
there is nothing else to come between them; but in the very cen- 
tre of His revelation He convinces us of the righteousness of 
Christ, which he who has lived hitherto in unbelief, if he will now 
believe, may and shall lay hold on. 

“Thus it is not merely as defensor causae,— whose office is 
éléyyely tovs avredéyovtas, as Grotius says,—in behalf of 
Christ and those who are already His, and for the condemnation 
of all others, that the Spirit bears witness so convincingly, but in 
order that He may absolve, convert, and comfort, those who will 
give heed to His reproof. The office of reproving is a necessary 
preliminary to that of comforting. Hence the Paraclete is not 
here discharging an alien office, until He assumes His own of 
comforting and preaching grace, as Luther says: but the EMEY YS, 
both as anterior to the “agtugia, and as involved in it, belongs 
in its last and fullest sense to Him alone. In a certain sense 
doubtless it is true, that whatever reproves of sin belongs to the 
Law: but inasmuch as in the Spirit God speaks through His glo- 
rified Son for the first time from heaven itself, from the heavenly 
Zion of His redeeming Grace, the words of the Spirit are at the 
same time the fulfilment of the Law; for which that delivered on 
Sinai was only the type and preparation: Hebr. xii. 18-25. It is 
an erroneous limitation to say that the Holy Spirit by the Law 
reproves every thing as sin, that is not faith; for it is only the 
Gospel that speaks of faith with this reproof of the want of it. On 


NOTE Q. 411 


the contrary we shall see that the reproof of the Spirit superin- 
duces something quite new and different upon the first Law, 
strictly so called, —and that His conviction of sin needs only to 
be received and truly understood, to make manifest that in itself 
it is a conviction of the righteousness of grace for faith, and thus 
truly an operation of the Comforter. 

“ By the three momentous words, auagria, dexacoourn, xoi- 
ov¢, our Lord sets forth the three main stages of the Truth, and 
of its great progressive work. The world has no correct and 
complete knowledge of what Sin is, or Righteousness, or Judg- 
ment, until the Holy Spirit has told it. It will boast indeed — of 
its initial, superficial knowledge thereof; for where can a man be 
found, who knows nothing of these things ? — but, in persisting 
that this is the whole truth, it turns the beginning of the Truth 
into a contradiction to its end, into a delusion and falsehood. To 
a full, final understanding of these three words, current as they 
are in all the world, and extant in every conscience, — so that the 
Holy Spirit everywhere finds a foundation, but one which He 
Himself must set right, — nobody can be brought experientially 
through any human power or wisdom, nor through any letter of 
the Word, through any outward event of life, even though it 
were a word of Christ or of His Apostles, or the works of Christ 
carried on in undeniable facts and historical wonders since the 
day of Pentecost. This can only be done by the Spirit, and that 
too asathe Spirit, working, as ever, by means of words and events, 
but only so far as He acts inwardly on the heart and the con- 
science. Therefore all those are greatly mistaken, and have a 
mere superficial understanding of this passage, who talk here 
about certain outward events, whereby the Spirit convinced and 
refuted the world, that is, Israel. O no! His Eheyyos stretches 
more widely, and continues unto the end of days, as far and as 
long as there is a z00u0¢ to be convinced. He does indeed 
make use of the continual testimony of the Word, as well as of 
ever renewed facts; but it is only by His inward speech and tes- 
timony that He produces conviction. 

“It is not a compulsory, but a convicting power,” says Lampe, 
entering at first on a right track, which recognizes the region left 


in this €4evyog to the freewill of man: he even adds, “ It does 
not operate as with a block, but as with a rational being, by persua- 


412 NOTE Q. 
sion.” Now, if the Holy Spirit Himself at last only does this, even 
His final. grace must be resistible, as well as irresistible. Irresisti- 
dle, in that all, whether they will or no, shall and must at last be 
really convinced of God’s truth: but whether they will then sub- 
mit and obey, and turn to the truth from their lie, that they may 
be saved, or not, rests with them. And terrible, blasphemous is 
the expression of the doctrine of predestination, when the same 
Lampe writes concerning the difference between those who obey 
and resist, ‘The cause of this difference is not in men, but in the 
operation of the Spirit, which, conformably to the eternal decree 
‘of God, works with less clearness and power in the reprobate than 
in the elect.” Where is there a syllable about this minor eviden- 
dia et efficacia in the €deyyog, which is the same for the whole 
world? Thus will an erroneous preconceived opinion pervert 
the clearest words, which set it right. 

* Baumgarten Crusius is right, when with Augustin, Chryso- 
stom, Luther, he maintains that or¢ in all the three cases indicates 
the object of the testimony of the Spirit. “Oze gives us the sub- 
stance of the auagotia, dexacoovrn, zoloeg, tells us what sin, 
righteousness, and judgment, our Lord meant. 

“Thus, firstly, the specific sin which our Lord meant, was that 
of unbelief, as in xv. 22, 24, x. 38. This is not a mere error here, 
any more than in vill. 46, but the consummation and ground, the 
fruit and kernel, the very essence of all sin of the corrupt will. 
As Jesus had not reproved the transgression of the command- 
ments, which was the work of Moses and the prophets in earlier 
‘times, but unbelief in Himself, the Spirit, who came in His place, 
‘continues and completes this His work. In carrying it on He 
proceeds from the testimony already extant against sin in the 
Law and the conscience, both among the Jews and the Heathens, 
confirming it, or, in case of need, awakening it; but His reproof 
was of a totally different kind. If ove is explanatory, the inter- 
pretation adopted by Lampe is erroneous, according to which 
AaMaotla in v. 8 means, ‘not this or that sin, but the universal 
state of sin, the condition of the sinner, and who then says that 
the particular ‘sin of unbelief—is to be taken only as an exam- 
ple, as one of a thousand’ How ean scholars, who at other times 
give proof of their Christian experience and of their knowledge of 
Scripture, deal thus mechanically with the profoundest words of 


NOTE Q. 413 


Scripture? Was it necessary that the Spirit should come into 
the world to reprove sin generally? Can this then be our Lord’s 
meaning even in y.8? Yet He will reprove all sin in the fullest 
sense, and so as to carry the most piercing conviction: He will 
lay bare its root, and manifest it by its fruits. The Spirit of 
Christ, after the dispensation of the Law, takes up the work 
again, where since Genesis vi. 3 it had been relinquished. He as 
it were begins anew to strive with the world, but now for the first 
time penetrating into the innermost depths of sin, which had 
been made manifest by the rejection of the Incarnate Son of 
God. From the very first the root of all human sin, the Fall of 
Adam and Eve inclusive, was nothing else than unbelief in God: 
1 Pet. iii. 20, Hebr. iii. 19. In like manner, during the continu- 
ance, increase, and growth of sin, a more hardened unbelief 
became its consequence and fruit. We may say, both that man 
sins from the first and continually, because he did not believe the 
first truth of God, and that he does not believe His last truth, 
because he continues and is resolved to continue in sin. The 
consummation of full-erown sin, in which its ground must needs 
be discernible, the hatred of God, as was seen primarily in the 
Jews, and as appears, alas! down to this day in the world, even 
in Christendom, is the unbelief in Christ. This is its penultimate 
stage, wherein sin, when we are thus convinced of it, may and is 
to be overcome through the grace of Him who rose from the 
dead. The last stage is that incurred by the wilful, blasphemous 
rejection of the Holy Ghost. In truth and verity, however boldly 
the world may deny it, the fact is, and shall be made inwardly 
manifest to man, whether he will confess it or no, that his unbe- 
lief is a matter of the corrupt will, the result of a will so corrupt, 
that it will not let its sin be taken away by the Lamb of God. 
Although the favorite proposition of the deceiver, — that faith is 
not a matter of the will, and consequently that we are not 
accountable for it, nor can it decide our doom, — may be contin- 
ually reasserted, the Holy Ghost reproves the world of lies, when 
it pretends that its unbelief is merely honest doubt. That is to 
say, in the first instance it may really arise, though not wholly and 
solely, from thence, and thus may be mixed up with it and par- 
tially excused thereby: but, when the .Holy Ghost drawing nigh 
to us bears witness of Christ, then He will reprove unbelief as 
obstinate, abiding sin. 
35 * 


414 NOTE Q. 


« At the same time it is plain that, by reason of the OLUOOTIC 
of unbelief, all previous sin and transgression, which, having been 
reproved by the Law, was placed by Grace under the MAVEOLS, 
Rom. iii. 25, — continues upon the guilty head, and, being summed 
up and fixed in unbelief, falls upon it. Thus our Lord says (vill. 
94), For if ye believe not that Tam He, ye shall die in your sins. 
The world continues to sin, because it does not believe: that is 
presupposed: hence this passage declares that this is its abiding 
sin, whereby all others are retained, that it will not believe. Thus 
“+ further becomes manifest, as a preparation for the next proposi- 
tion, that. all denial and concealment of sin in those who do not 
believe in Christ, can only be a delusion and pretence, not un- 
mixed with audacity: all assumed righteousness becomes sin, and 
4s punished as such, where there is unbelief. Many in these days 
suppose that they believe, even so far as to become persecutors on 
this supposition: but where sin continues, it is a proof of unbelief 
jn the heart: and here the é4eyyog of the Holy Ghost proceeds 
from the reproof of sin generally to the reproof of the unbelief in 
avhich it lies. Observe, observe well: the Spirit does not make 
and give faith in its origin, but demands it, and rebukes unbelief 
as sin. Herein however is implied, if we understand and accept 
it, the surpassing comfort in this rebuke, the absolution which is 
held out in the condemnation itself. He who believes in Christ, 
‘is not judged, has no more sin: therefore believe, if thou yet canst 
and wilt; and thou art forthwith delivered. Christ is become thy 
Righteousness; the power and right of Satan over thee are abol- 
ished by Him. ‘This is the deep force of this passage, which Gro- 
tius interprets to mean that the sin of the unbelieving Jews will 
yecome manifest: ‘ When all shall come to pass which I have 
spoken concerning the sending forth of the Spirit, — (of which the 
Jews knew nothing) —it will appear that lama prophet accord- 
ing to the law of God.” 

I will end this Note with an extract from an interesting work by 
Goeschel, —an author the main object of whose writings has been 
to reconcile or to show the accordance of the Hegelian Philosophy 
svith Christian Theology, — On Hegel and his Age. When speak- 
ing of the manner in which Hegel had overcome the subjective 
character of the systems of: his immediate predecessors, by demon- 
strating the unity and identity of the subjective with the objective, 
he remarks (p. 103): “We may find an example of this in the 


NOTE, R. 415 


highest of all phenomena, that is, the appearance of God in man, 
as in the flesh. This is adequate to that which it contains, and 
identical therewith : consequently the contents, that is, the fulness 
of the Godhead, are included in the phenomenon; for the sub- 
stance does not transcend the form more than this surpasses itself, 
and by negativing itself preserves its continuity. Christian The- 
ology expresses the same truth, when it teaches us that the mani- 
festation of God in man only attained its completion in the death 
of the Son of Man. The unbelief in the Deity of Christ, which is 
the sin of the world and of this age, rests upon that unbelief, which 
characterized the Critical and the Transcendental Idealistie Phi- 
losophy, in the identity of the phenomenon with its contents, of the 
form with the substance, or of the finite with the infinite; which 
last is indeed transcendent, but for this very reason is only the 
more identical with the phenomenon.” Here we find an answer 
by anticipation to the fallacy which lies at the bottom of Strausses 
Life of Christ, that the idea can never have an adequate exponent. 
Goeschel’s work was published in 1832,—the first edition of 
Strausses in 1835,—justifying the correctness of Goeschel’s as- 
sertion, that unbelief in Christ is still the sin of the age. 


Note R: p- 100. 


This point is finely treated by Donne in his 34th Sermon. “In 
this capacity, as the Comforter, we must consider Lis action, ar- 
guet, He shall reprove; reprove, and yet comfort, nay, therefore 
comfort, because reprove; and then the subject of his action, 
mundum, the world, the whole world ; no part left unreproved, yet 
no part left without comfort; and after that, what He reproves the 
world of, — of sin, of righteousness; of judgment. Can there be 
comfort in reproof for sin ?— This seems strange; and yet this 
must be done, and done to our comfort; for this must be done eum 
venerit, then when the Holy Ghost, and He in that function, as 
the Comforter, is come, is present, 1s working. 

“ Beloved, reproofs upon others without charity, rather to defame 
them, than amend them, — reproofs upon thyself without showing 
mercy to thine own soul, diffidences and jealousies and suspicions 
of God, either that He hated thee before thy sin, or hates thee 
irremediably, irreconcilably, irrecoverably, irreparably for thy sin 


416 NOTE R. 


— these are reproofs; but they are absente Spiritu, in the absence 
of the Holy Ghost, before He comes, or when He is gone. When 
He comes, and stays, He shall reprove, and reprove all the world, 
and all the world of those errors, sin, righteousness, and judgment, 
and those errors upon those evidences, Of sin, because they believe 
not in Me, ete. Butin all this proceeding He shall never divest 
the nature of a Comforter: in that capacity He is sent; in that 
He comes and works. — 

“For No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy 
Ghost: and there is our first comfort, in knowing that Christ is 
God. For He were—no Redeemer, He were a weak Saviour, an 
insufficient Mediator, a silenced Advocate, and a Judge that might 
be misinformed, if He were not God. And though He were God, 
He might be all these to my discomfort, if there were not a Holy 
Ghost to make all these offices comfortable to me. To be a Re- 
deemer, and not a Saviour, is but to pay my debts, and leave me 
nothing to live on. To be a Mediator, a person capable by His 
composition of two natures to intercede between God and man, 
and not to be my Advocate, is but to be a good counsellor, but not 
of counsel with me. To be a Judge of quick and dead, and to 
proceed out of outward evidence, and not out of His bosom mercy, 
is but an acceleration of my conviction: I were better lie in prison 
still, than appear at that assize; better lie in the dust of the grave 
for ever, than come to that judgment. But as there is mens in 
and every man hath a soul, but every man hath not a 
mind, that is, a consideration, an actuation, an application of the 


anima, 


faculties of the soul to particulars; so there is a Spiritus in Spiritu, 
a Holy Ghost in all the Holy offices of Christ, which offices, being 
in a great part directed upon the whole world, are made comfort- 
able to me, by being by this Holy Spirit turned upon me, and ap- 
propriated to me: for so even that name of Christ, which might 
most make me afraid, the name of Judge, becomes a comfort to 
me. To this purpose does St. Basil call the Holy Ghost, “ the 
Word of God, because He is the Interpreter of the Son:” the Son 
of God is the Word of God, because He manifests the Father; 
and the Holy Ghost is the Word of God, because He applies the 
Son. Christ comes with that loud proclamation, Ecce auditum 
fecit! Behold the Lord hath proclaimed it to the end of the world! 
Ecce Salvator! and Ecce merces! Behold His salvation! Behold 
thy reward! This is His publication in the manifest ordinances 


(ee Cree ee 


NOTE R. 417 


of the Church: and then the Holy Ghost whispers to thy soul, as 
thou standest in the congregation, in that voice that He promises, 
Sibilabo populum meum, — I will hiss, I will whisper to My people 
by soft and inward inspirations. Christ came to tell us all, That 
to as many as received Him He gave power to become the sons of 
God. The Holy Ghost comes to tell thee, that thou art one of, 
them. — 

“ As the world is the whole frame of the world, God hath put 
into it a reproof, a rebuke, lest it should seem eternal, which is a 
sensible decay and age in the whole frame of the world and every 
piece thereof; the seasons of the year irregular and distempered, 
the sun fainter and languishing, men less in stature and shorter- 
lived. No addition, but only every year new sorts, new species 
of worms and flies and sicknesses, which argue more and more 
putrefaction, of which they are engendered. And the angels of 
heaven, which did so familiarly converse with men in the begin- 
ning of the world, though they may not be doubted to perform to 
us still their ministerial assistances, yet they seem so far to have 
deserted this world, as that they do not appear to us, as they did 
to those our fathers. — Lest the world — should glorify itself, or 
flatter and abuse us with an opinion of eternity, we may admit 
usefully —this observation to be true, that there is a reproof, a 
rebuke borne in it, a sensible decay and mortality of the whole 
world. But is this a reproof agreeable to our text? a reproof 
that carries comfort with it? comfort to the world itself, that it is 
not eternal? Truly it is, as St. Paul has most pathetically ex- 
pressed it: The creature (that is, the world) is in an earnest ex- 
pectation, the creature waiteth, the whole creation groaneth and 
travaileth in pain. Therefore the creature, that is, the world, 
receives a perfect comfort in being delivered at last, and an 
inchoative comfort in knowing now that it shall be delivered. 
From what? From subjection to vanity, from the bondage of cor- 
ruption, that, whereas the world is now subject to mutability and 
corruption, at the resurrection it shall no longer be so; but in 
that measure and in that degree which it is capable of, it shall enter 
into the glorious liberty of the children of God ; that is, be as free 
from corruption or change in that state wherein it shall be glori- 
fied, as the saints shall be in the glory of their state : for the light of 
the moon shail be as the light of the sun ; and the light of the sun 
shall be sevenfold; and there shall be new heavens and new earth ; 


418 NOTE R. 


which is a state that this world could not attain to, if it were eter- 
nally to last in that condition in which it is now, a condition sub- 
ject to vanity, impotency, corruption: and therefore there is a 
comfort in this reproof, even to this world, that it is not eternal: 
this world is the happier for that. 

“As the world, in a second sense, signifies all the men of the 
world, — there is a reproof borne in every man, which reproof is 
an uncontrollable sense, and an irresistible remorse and chiding 
of himself inwardly, when he is about to sin, and a horror of the 
majesty of God, whom, when he is alone, he is forced, and forced 
by himself, to fear and-to believe; though he would fain make the 
world believe that he did not believe in God, but lived at peace, 
and subsisted of himself, without being beholden to God. — Every 
man has this reproof borne in him, that he doth ill, that he offends 
a God, that he breaks a law, when he sins. And this reproof is a 
reproof within our text: for it has this comfort with it, that how- 
soever some men labor to overcome the natural tenderness of the 
conscience, and so triumph over their own ruin, and rejoice when 
they can sleep and wake again without any noise in their conscience, 
or sense of sin, yet in truth this candle. cannot be blown out, 
this remorse cannot be overcome. But were it not a greater com- 
fort to me if I could overcome it? No: for, though this remorse 
— be not grace, yet this remorse, which is the natural reproof of 
the soul, is that that grace works upon. Grace doth not ordi- 
narily work upon the stiffness of the soul, upon the silence, upon 
the frowardness, upon the averseness of the soul; but when the 
soul is suppled and mellowed, and feels this reproof, this remorse 
in itself, that reproof, that remorse becomes as the matter, and 
grace enters as the form; that becomes the bedy, and grace be- 
comes the soul: and that is the comfort of this natural reproof of 
the world, that is, of every man, first, that it will not be quenched 
in itself, and then, that ordinarily it induces a nobler light than 
itself, which is, effectual and true repentance. 

“ As the world, in a third sense, signifies only the wicked world, 
—that world, the world of the wicked, suffer many reproofs, 
many rebukes in their hearts, which they will not discover, be- 
cause they envy God that glory. — Certainly Herod would have 
been more affected, if he had thought that we should have known 
how his pride was punished with those sudden worms, than with 
the punishment itself. This is a self-reproof: even in this, though 


NOTE R. i LL 


he will not suffer it to break out to the edification of others, there 
is some kind of chiding himself for something misdone. But is 
there any comfort in this reproof? —TI can hardly speak comfort- 
ably of such a man, after he is dead, that dies in such a disaffection, 
loth that God should receive glory, or His servants edification, by 
these judgments. But even with such aman, if I assisted at his 
death-bed, I would proceed with a hope to infuse comfort even from 
that disaffection of his. As long as I saw in him any acknowledg- 
ment (though a negligent, nay, though a malignant, a despiteful ac- 
knowledgment) of God, as long as I found him loth that God should 
receive glory, even from that lothness, from that reproof, from that 
acknowledgment that there is a God to whom glory is due, I 
would hope to draw him to glorify that God before his last gasp. 
My zeal should last as long as his wife’s officiousness, or his child- 
ren’s or friends or servants obsequiousness, or the solicitude of his 
physicians should: as long as there were breath, they would min- 
ister some help; as long as there were any sense of God, I would 
hope to do some good. And so much comfort may arise even out 
of this reproof of the world, as the world is only the wicked world. 
“In the last sense, the world signifies the saints, the elect, the 
good men of the world. — And this world, that is, the godliest of 
this world, have many reproofs, many corrections upon them; that 
outwardly they are the prey of the wicked, and inwardly have 
that stimulum carnis, which is the devil’s solicitor; and round 
about them they see nothing but profanation of His word, misem- 
ployment of His works, His creatures, misconstructions of His 
actions, His judgments, blasphemy of His name, neglivence and 
undervaluation of His sacraments, violations of His sabbaths and 
holy convocations. — ee 
“ This then is the reproof of the world, that is, of the saints of 
God in the world, that, though I would rather be a doorkeeper in 
the house of my God, I must dwell in the tents of wickedness ; that, 
though my zeal consume me because my enemies have forgotten Thy 
words, I must stay amongst them that have forgotten Thy words, 
But this and all other reproofs that arise in the godly, — have this 
comfort in them, that these faults that I endure in others, God 
hath either pardoned me, or kept from me; and that, though this 
world be wicked, yet, when I shall come to the next world, I shall 
find Noah, that had been drunk, and Lot, that had been incestu- 
ous, and Moses, that murmured at God’s proceedings, and Job, 


aeo > F NOTE S. 


and Jeremy, and Jonas, impatient, even to imprecations against 
themselves, — Christ’s own disciples ambitious of worldly prefer- 
ment, His apostles forsaking Him, His great apostle forswearing 
Him, and Mary Magdalen, that had been I know not what sinner, 
and David, that had been all. I leave none so ill in this world, 
but I may carry one that was, or find some that had been, as ill as 
they in heaven: and that blood of Jesus Christ, which had brought 
them thither, is offered to them that are here, who may be succes- 
sors in their repentance, as they are in their sins.” 


Notre S: *p.'114. 


The vulgar-minded in all ages have been incapable of conceiving 
that a man can be actuated by any but personal feelings and mo- 
tives. In fact this is the essential difference between the vulgar. 
and the noble mind, that the latter is moved and stirred by that 
which, being out of himself, is not contemplated with any refer- 
ence to personal advantage or gratification. Jiven opinions and 
doctrines, when they startle the people out of the torpor of custom 
and tradition, are mostly ascribed to rivalry, or ostentation, or some 
other mode of vanity, by those who know not what it is to love 
Truth, nor how joyfully the lover of Truth will encounter all diffi- 
culties, and offer up every sacrifice, for the sake of his love. The 
slanders which ascribe the origin of the Reformation to Luther’s 
jealousy of the Dominicans, or other evil passions, though their 
falsehood is palpable, and has been conclusively exposed over and 
over again, are still circulated busily by religious and literary pet- 
tifogeers at this day: and if we think of the most eminent men of 
our own times, we shall find that few of them have escaped being - 
assailed with similar imputations. In a congenial spirit it is as- 
serted by Dionysius, and has been repeated by sundry minute 
critics since, that Plato’s expulsion of Homer and of other poets 
from his ideal Republic arose out of jealousy. On the other hand 
this paradox has been summarily condemned by many, who have 
never taken the trouble of inquiring how so wise a man came to 
entertain what they deem so flagrant an absurdity. Yet a thought- 
ful reader would not find it easy to answer the arguments adduced 
in the third and tenth books of the Republic, in proof of the mis- 
chief which the poetry most popular among the Greeks would have 


NOTE 8. 421 


effected in Plato’s ideal commonwealth, or to show how he, from 
his point of view, could have come to any different conclusion. 
With the fullest conviction of the inestimable benefits which Poe- 
try, amid the conflict and whirlpool of the passions, and along 
with the tendency of property and of labor, unless counteracted 
by higher incentives, to degrade and embase man, has wrought, 
and is fitted, when a true poet strikes the epic or dramatic strain, 
to work, we can readily understand how, among the early Quakers 
and the Moravians, or any other community which tries practically 
to fulfil the conditions of a spiritual life, Poetry will find little 
matter, except for hymns and songs of praise; and to these Plato 
gives his sanction, where he lays down “that none but hymns to 
the gods, and eulogies of the good, should be admitted into a 
State.” In fact the very characters, the passions, the struggles, 
which have always formed the chief elements of dramatic interest, 
are alien from such a community; and where the realities are. 
wholly wanting, and, instead of awakening sympathy and admira- 
tion, would be cast out, a poet will hardly be led to delineate them, 
and would find no favor if he did. Nor would the purificatory 
powers of terror and pity be of use, where the vices which need 
such correctives are not to be found. ‘In like manner, if we lift 
our contemplations to the angels in heaven, we can only conceive- 
of them as singing the praises of their Maker, and telling of His 
wondrous works; not as taking pleasure in the representations of 
those mixed characters, which are the main theme of the drama,. 
representations which often throw a halo of glory around things. 
morally reprehensible, and which are the very works condemned 
for this reason by Plato, ag delusive and perversive of the moral 
sense. ‘Thus Plato’s views on Poetry seem to be an instance of: 
those marvellous anticipations of a higher order of things, which: 
occur here and there in his works, anticipations which are neces- 
sarily imperfect, and may easily become distorted, from their in- 
congruity with the world around him, and from the aptness of op- 
position to run into extremes. A similar apology might be offered: 
for his notions with regard to Property, which began to be realized 
when the first disciples had all things common. Nay, even for 
those on Marriage, though here the incompatibility with the pres 
ent condition of man is still wider and more glaring, it may be 
pleaded that in the resurrection, as we are told, they neither MATTY 5, 
nor are given in marriage. 
36 


422 NOTE S. 


In Schelling’s last Lecture On the Method of Academical Study, 
Plato’s condemnation of poetry, is explained and vindicated in a 
somewhat similar manner, as resulting from the strong antithesis 
between poetry and philosophy among the Greeks. “ It is essen- 
tial that we should look at the specific point of view from which 
Plato pronounces his verdict upon poets. For if any philosopher 
ever observed the distinctions incident to different points of view, 
it was he: and unless we take this into account, it is impossible, as 
in all other places, so especially in this, to comprehend his mean- 
ing, which is ever full of references and allusions, or to reconcile 
the contradictions in his works with regard to the selfsame object. 
We must begin with recognizing that all deep philosophy, and es- 
pecially that of Plato, it is to be regarded as the direct antithesis 
in the cultivation of the Greeks, not merely to the sensual concep- 
tions of their religion, but also to the objective and thoroughly real 
forms of their polities. Now whether in a perfectly ideal and, as 
it were, spiritual commonwealth, such as Plato’s, poetry might be 
dealt with in a different manner, and whether the restriction which 
he imposes upon it is, or is not necessary, are questions which we 
cannot here discuss. The antithesis of all the public forms of life 
to philosophy could not but produce a like opposition in philosophy 
to them, of which Plato is neither the only, nor the first mstance. 
From the time of Pythagoras, and still further back, down to Plato, 
Philosophy is conscious of being an exotic plant on the Greek soil; 
a consciousness which found vent in the general impulse whereby 
such as had been initiated into higher doctrines, either by the wis- 
dom of earlier philosophers, or by the mysteries, were led to the 
mother-country of ideas, the East. But even apart from the con- 
sideration that the opposition was thus far merely historical, not. 
philosophical, and allowing it to have been the latter, what is Plato’s 
rejection of poetry, compared with his expressions in other works 
in praise of enthusiastic poetry, except a polemical attack upon 
poetical realism, an anticipation of the direction which the mind of 
man, and poetry especially, was in after-ages to take? Least of 
all can we assume that his judgment is to have weight as against 
Christian poetry, which on the whole bears the character of the 
infinite, no less decidedly than ancient poetry bears that of the 
finite. Our being able to determine the limits of the latter more 
precisely than Plato could, who did not know its antithesis, —our 
being able to rise hereby to a more comprehensive idea and con- 


NOTE T. 423 


struction of poetry, and to regard what he deemed utterly repre- 
hensible in the poetry of his age, as merely the limitation which it 
received from the principle of Beauty, — we owe to the experience 
of subsequent ages, seeing the fulfilment of that which Plato pro- 
phetically felt the want of. The Christian religion, and the bent 
of man’s mind toward the spiritual world,— which bent could 
never gain its full satisfaction, nor even the means of expressing 
itself, in ancient poetry, — has produced a new kind of poetry and 
art, wherein it finds what it wants: and hereby the conditions of 
a complete and purely objective view of art, even of ancient art, 
are supplied.” 


e 


Notr T:. p.-120. 

In a body of young men, like that which is collected in our 
Universities, comprising the flower and promise of the nation, 
there will ever be found a proneness to overate the worth of intel- 
lectual power, and of those moral qualities which go to make up 
energy of character; and this exaggeration will be accompanied 
by a depreciation of the humbler graces, of that which is retiring 
and orderly and submissive. This proneness will not be univer- 
sal; nor will it prevail among the majority even of the more intel- 
ligent and studious. The chief part of these are wont to regard 
their studies mainly as a preparation for professional and practi- 
cal life, according to the established order of things, deeming con- 
formity to that order a matter of course, and entertaining a sort 
of repugnance to those who transgress it. But a considerable 
portion of the more genial and finer spirits, as well as the mass of 
the frothy and turbulent, — Alcibiades as well as Phidippides, — 
are apt to find something uncongenial in that element of thought, 
in which their fathers lived with ease and refreshment, and to 
feel stirrings within them calling for something different, for 
something new. Now these feelings may vent themselves very 
reprehensibly: they may be unjust to that which is, and dreamy 
as to that which is to be: but still they have a right of a certain 
kind on their side, what Niebuhr calls Das Recht des Werdenden. 
For every generation has its own appointed work, and is not to 
be content with treading in the footsteps of its fathers, but has 
new forests to clear away, new fields of thought to plough up and 


424 NOTE T. 


cultivate. At times too, when custom. and prescription have 
become torpid and oppressive, the champions of truth and right, 
Aristides and Solon, may stand in the same rank with Alcibiades 
and Phidippides. Now these are the very minds on which what 
is genial and energetic in the literature of the day acts the most 
powerfully : for herein they’seem to find a response to their own 
desires; and thus, while the mass of men are slowly and slightly 
moved by literature, these are hurried away by it, and may have 
the fashion of their minds, and of their future lives, determined in 
great measure by the impulses of thought received in their youth. 
Hence is it of such moment to the wellbeing of a nation, that 
what is genial and energetic in its literature should be bound in 
close alliance with highmindedness, and with depth of thought, 
and with practical wisdom. 

We whose entrance into intellectual life took place in the 
second and third decad of this century, enjoyed a singular felicity 
in this respect, in that the stimulators and trainers of our thoughts 
were Wordsworth and Coleridge; in whom practical judgment 
and moral dignity and a sacred love of truth are so nobly wedded 
‘to the highest intellectual power. By them the better part of us 
were preserved from the noxious taint of Byron; whose antago- 
nism to established opinions, and sentimental, self-ogling misan- 
thropy, and lawless conception of heroic ruffians, in whom one 
virtue was mixed up with a thousand crimes, alleged to be 
redeemed and sanctified by reckless passion, profanely called 
love, were sadly calculated to fascinate and delude the class of 
minds Ihave been speaking of. About the middle of the last 
century Rousseau was their European oracle. Some twenty years 
later that peculiar complexion of thought and fecling, which 
received its poetical representation and embodiment in Werther 
and Goetz of Berlichingen, being itself drawn from the age, Was 
in such strong sympathy with it, that, by a not uncommon misun- 
derstanding, works designed to be works of art were supposed 
to have an immediate practical purpose, and to be set up, not as 
imaginative pictures of humanity, but as lessons and models, with 
a view to ethical instruction and to literal imitation. Utterly 
morbid and corrupt as the condition of European society was in 
the years which preceded the French Revolution, when all ear- 
nestness and simplicity seemed to have passed away from life, and 
a gaudy, sugared crust lay tremblingly covering hollow depths of 


a 


NOTE T. 425 


rottenness, — while they who were wasting in voluptuous frivolity 
ever and anon betrayed that they were conscious of their weak- 
ness and worthlessness by heartless irony and self-mockery, — it . 
is not surprising that works like Schiller’s Robbers, expressing the 
bitterest aversion to the whole order of the world, should have 
operated contagiously, or that young men should have fancied 
that, if they took to the highway, they should become Charles 
Moors. . 
At present, I believe, the writer to whom the same class of 
minds pay their chief homage, and who does more than any 
other toward shaping their views of life and society, is Mr. 
Carlyle. Hence, as well as from his being, I am informed, the 
favorite writer with the most thoughtful and active intellects 
among the middle and lower ranks, it may be termed a matter of 
national interest, that what is sound and valuable in him should 
be disengaged from the errors and exaggerations with which it is 
frequently combined. He himself has said indeed, and ingeniously 
enough, in one of his panegyrics on Nature (Lectures on Heroes, 
p- 99), that “ you take wheat to cast into the earth’s bosom; your 
wheat may be mixed with chaff, chopped straw, barn sweepings, 
dust, and all imaginable rubbish; no matter: you cast it into the 
kind, just earth; she grows the wheat; the whole rubbish she 
silently absorbs, shrouds it in, says nothing of the rubbish: the 
yellow wheat is growing there; the good earth is silent about all 
the rest, has silently turned all the rest to some benefit too, and 
makes no complaint about it.” But clever as this is, and though 
there is a portion of a grand truth in it, yet, as is often the case,in 
Mr. Carlyle’s writings, oftener perhaps than in those of any other 
author to whom so much living truth has been revealed, the truth 
here is only a half or one-sided truth. For, without calling in 
the Parable of the Sower, every ploughboy knows that Nature 
does not perform the whole, nor even the chief part of the work 
in bringing forth wheat. Chaff, it is true, does not spring up; 
but weeds.do; and there is no commoner proverb than that dl 
weeds grow apace. Hence it is a dangerous fallacy to teach that 
it matters not how much error, how much falsehood you mix up 
with your doctrine, provided there be certain particles of truth 
in it. Nature does not reject weeds, even though they be poison- 
ous: still less does man, except he be purified by godly discipline. 
If the history of the world declares any thing, it declares this, — 
36 * 


426 NOTE T. 


this, and that, if the same wheat be sown over and over in gener- 
ation after generation, it degenerates, and ere long will produce 
little beside chaff. In fact one main theme of Mr. Carlyle’s writ- 
ings 1s the complaint of this very transitoriness, this rapid decay 
and evanescence of truth and reality, of its waning and dwindling 
into a mere form, a formula, a sham, as he is fond of phrasing it. 

In proclaiming and exposing this miserable weakness of our na~ 
ture, he has done good service in an age, when, while multitudes 
walk selfcomplacently in the worn-out shoes of their forefathers, 
not a few think they are grown into giants because they stalk tot- 
teringly along upon logical stilts, thereby losing the touch of the 
earth, and all sympathy with reality. So again has he done good 
service, in an age when the means and incentives of loquacity are 
multiplied to such excess, by proclaiming, even with a dinning re- 
iteration, the paramount worth and the absolute indispensableness 
of truth, sincerity, earnestness, to every kind of greatness, and that 
words, when they do not spring from a living root in the heart, are 
fugitive as blossoms plucked from their stem, and can never turn 
ito frait. But when it is asserted that these qualities are all in 
all, that truth, -— subjective truth, truth of character, sincerity, 
earnestness, — are not merely essential elements in that which is 
good and great, but do of themselves and by themselves constitute 
goodness and greatness, it is plain that the dismal power of evil in 
man and in the world, the lawless tendencies of the will, and the 
necessity of law to organize the tumultuous stirrings and heavings 
in man’s breast into a consistent, orderly whole, must be left out of 
view: and then an admirer of mere energy will readily fall into 
that abysmal error, that Might is Right. 

Mr. Carlyle indeed, in his wiser moments, knows far better than 
this, and at times has given utterance to the opposite truth with 
his peculiar force. He knows too how much mightier light, in its 
silent, beneficent operations, is than lightning, notwithstanding the 
roar that follows it. Still, through his craving for energy and in- 
tensity, he has a constant hankering after that primary. antitruth, 
which runs as an undercurrent through his writings, determining 
his sympathies and antipathies, and ever and anon shoots up and 
bursts forth; for instance, in his inordinate admiration of Mira- 
beau, and in the general tone of his History of the French Revo- 
lution. Again, in his Lectures on Heroes, though in them the truth 
often wrestles with its opposite, it is not brought out with distinct- 


NOTE T. 7 427 


ness how the informing idea alone can render the fermenting en- 
ergies in man truly heroic, and how the latter are without form 
and void until that idea vivifies and hallows them; in a word, how 
the truly heroic idea is that of Duty, animated by Love, and kind- 
ling into self-sacrifice ; and how Law is the clearest, and for man 
in almost all cases the safest, exponent and form of Duty; so that 
the true hero should realize Milton’s grand description of a king: 
“ Disciplined in the precepts and the practice of temperance and | 
sobriety, without the strong drink of injurious and excessive de- 
sires, he should grow up to a noble strength and perfection, with 
those his illustrious and sunny locks, the laws, waving and curling 
about his godlike shoulders.” 

Let us keep this normal idea before us; and then we shall be 
able to make out when and how a-hero may, for the sake of law, 
contend against the laws. Whereas the doctrine, that strength, 
energy, earnestness, are the heroic principles in man, without due 
reference to discipline, self-control, law, or objective truth, pam- 
pers a morbid self-will and ostentation, and seems to the young to 
justify the very extravagances, into which, from their buoyant ar- 
dor, and their inability to perceive the fundamental grounds and 
structure, and the mutual adaptation and interpenetration of the 
various elements that have coalesced during centuries in the exist- 
ing order of society, they are so apt to run. On the other hand 
the idolatry of strength will ever be accompanied by a disparage- 
ment, if not contempt, of that which is calm and gentle and quiet, 
of those who walk steadily and patiently and perseveringly along 
the measured path of duty. It exclaims with the fallen archangel, 
To be weak is miserable, Doing or suffering. ‘Those fine lines in 
Schiller’s Wallenstein, where the Countess Tertsky is instigating 
her brother-in-law to desert the Emperor, — 


’ 
Necessity, impetuous remonstrant, 


Who not with empty names, or shows of proxy, 

Ts served, who’ll have the thing and not the symbol, 
Ever seeks out the greatest and the best, 

And at the rudder places him, e’en though 

She had been forced to take him from the rabble, — 
She, this necessity, it was that placed thee 

In this high office; it was she that gave thee 

Thy letters patent of inauguration. 

For to the uttermost moment that they can, 


428 NOTE T. 


This race still help themselves at cheapest rate 
With slavish souls, with puppets. At the approach 
Of extreme peril, when a hollow image 

Is found a hollow image, and no more, 

Then falls the power into the mighty hands 

Of nature, of the spirit giant-born, 
Who listens only to himself, knows nothing 

Of stipulations, duties, reverences, 

And, like the emancipated force of fire, 
Unmastered scorches, ere it reaches them, 
Their fine-spun webs, their artificial policy. — 
For, by the laws of spirit, in the right 

Is every individual character 

That acts in strict consistence with itself: 
Self-contradiction is the only wrong; — 


these lines, which are admirably appropriate when designed as 
stimulants to an act of treason, are set up as enunciating the first 
principles of heroic morality. In fact these lines, if we change a 
word here and there,—for instance, writing, “ when a hollow 
sham Is found a hollow sham, and nothing more,” —might be 
taken for a versification of some one or other of the passages to 
the same effect, which are perpetually occurring in Mr. Carlyle’s 
volumes. 

As the best antidote to this whole theory, let me introduce the 
following extract from the great teacher, by whom, as I have al- 
ready said, I was preserved, along with many of my contempora- 
ries, from a number of similar contagious delusions. In Appendix 
B to his first Lay Sermon, Coleridge, in speaking of the will, 
writes thus: “In its state of immanence or indwelling in reason 
and religion, the will appears indifferently as wisdom or as love; 
two names of the same power, the former more intelligential, the 
latter more spiritual, the former more frequent in the Old, the lat- 
ter in the New Testament. But in its utmost abstraction, and con- 
sequent state of reprobation, the will becomes satanic pride and 
rebellious self-idolatry in the relations of the spirit to itself, and 
remorseless despotism relatively to others; the more hopeless, as 
the more obdurate, by its subjugation of sensual impulses, by its 
superiority to toil and pain and pleasure; in short, by the fearful 
resolve to find in itself alone the one absolute motive of action, 
under which all other motives from within and from without must 
be either subordinated or crushed. This is the character which 


NOTE T. 429 


Milton has so philosophically as well as sublimely embodied in the 
Satan of his Paradise Lost. Alas! too often has it been embodied 
in real life. Too often has it given a dark and savage grandeur 
to the historic page. And wherever it has appeared, under what-- 
ever circumstances of time and country, the same ingredients have 
gone to its composition; and it has been identified by the same 
attributes. Hope, in which there is no cheerfulness, steadfastness. 
within and immovable resolve, with outward restlessness and whirl- 
ing activity, violence with guile, temerity with cunning, and, as the 
result of all, interminableness of object with perfect indifference 
of means, — these are the qualities that have constituted the com- 
manding genius; these are the marks that have characterized the 
masters of mischief, the liberticides, and mighty hunters of man- 
kind, from Nimrod to Bonaparte. And from inattention to the 
possibility of such a character, as well as from ignorance of its ele- 
ments, even men of honest intentions too frequently become fasci- 
nated. Nay, whole nations have been so far duped by this want 
of insight and reflection, as to regard with palliative admiration, 
instead of wonder and abhorrence, the Molochs of human nature, 
who are indebted for the larger portion of their meteoric success 
to their total want of principle, and who surpass the generality of 
their fellow-creatures in one act of courage only, that of daring to 
say with their whole heart, Evil, be thou my good. All system so 
far is power: and a systematic criminal, self-consistent and entire 
in wickedness, who entrenches villany within villany, and barri- 
cadoes crime by crime, has removed a world of obstacles by the 
mere decision that he will have no obstacles, but those of force 
and brute matter.” 7 

There is a like passage, containing several of the same illustra- 
tions, and even the same words, in the sixteenth essay in the first 
volume of the Friend, where the great philosopher further says, 
that “the abandonment of all principle of right enables the soul 
to choose and act upon a principle of wrong, and to subordinate 
to this one principle all the various vices of human nature. For 
it is a mournful truth, that, as devastation is incomparably an eas- 
ier work than production, so may all its means and instruments 
be more easily arranged into a scheme and system; even as ina 
siege every building and garden, which the faithful governor must 
destroy, as impeding the defensive means of the garrison, or fur- 
nishing means of offence to the besieger, occasions a wound in 


430 : .- NoTE A 


feelings which Virtue herself has fostered; and Virtue, because it 
is virtue, loses perforce part of her energy in the reluctance with 
which she proceeds to a business so repugnant to her wishes, as a 
choice of evils.” Yet this very reluctance would be stigmatized 
as a weakness, and the want of it would be considered as a higher 
pitch of heroism, by the Titdnolaters. , 

In fact the whole theory is utterly fallacious. It is only in the 
supreme, divine idea, that truth and power, justice and energy, 
right and might, coincide. When the idea enters into the thick 
and troubled atmosphere of humanity, it is always refracted, and 
splits; and one ray of it will attach itself to one object, another 
to another: nor does the brilliancy of any one ray inany object on 
which it falls, give us reason to expect a like brightness in the rest. 
No man knows better than Mr. Carlyle how injustice, selfishness, 
weakness, and folly, are perpetually becoming lords of the ascend- 
ant, often for long ages; so far is Nature from having any power 
to increase and multiply and perpetuate the good committed to 
her keeping, and to reject the evil. She does not do so even with 
regard to the vegetable and lower animal world, much less, yea, 
very much less, with regard to man. For there is a broad distinc- 
tion here, which is often lost sight of by such as reason concern- 
ing the higher part of the creation, after analogies drawn from 
the lower parts. As evil is primarily and essentially moral, so 
that the evil in the natural world is only the shadow and reflec- 
tion of that in the spiritual, the power of evil in the moral world 
has ever been incomparably greater and wider and more destruc- 
tive than in the natural. In fact itis a totally different thing: and 
unless this difference be kept in view, when we speak of Nature 
in connection with moral good and evil, we get entangled in dis- 
mal confusion. Of Nature thus’ understood, and in reference to 
those who almost deify her, Coleridge once said to a friend of 
mine, No! Nature is not God ; she is only the devil in a strait waist- 
coat. 

The whole body of opinions, against which I have been con- 
tending in this Note, is the offspring of that pantheistic spirit, 
which has so infected literature during the last hundred years, 
and which manifests itself, in a variety of its results, among such 
as would shrink from its naked assertion. In Goethe, who of all 
men seems to have had the intensest appetite for reality, this pan- 
theistic spirit subordinated itself to the worship of Beauty, or 


NOTE T. 431 


rather shaped itself in the mould of Beauty, conceived in its 
broadest sense, as comprising the harmonious adjustment of parts 
in every order of being. Hence his almost exclusive love of 
Greek literature and art, which gained such sway over him dur- 
ing a considerable portion of his life; though, as his views widen- 
ed, it enlarged itself to embrace all the genuine forms in which a 
national imagination has found utterance. Hence too his repug- 
nance to all vehement characters, that is, to those which are 
especially termed heroic, such as Coriolanus and Luther, as trans- 
gressing the line of beauty; because, when a great moral idea is 
bursting into life in an uncongenial world, its birth is accom- 
panied with pangs and throes, the difficulty of parturition increas- 
ing in proportion as we rise in the scale of being; and because 
such an idea does not seek to clothe itself harmoniously in a dra- . 
pery of flesh and blood, like the idea of an artist, but feels bound 
to proclaim that, in a world where the sensuous is ever stifling the 
spiritual, the sensuous must be cast away and trampled under 
foot, to the end that the spiritual may stand out in its full, trans- 
cendant glory. In other words, he who is fighting for life, and 
for what is infinitely more precious to him, singlehanded, it may 
be, against a host, does not think of putting himself in the grace- 
ful posture of a fencer. 

On the other hand these vehement characters, so antipathetic 
to Goethe, are those which his great English admirer picks out as 
his peculiar favorites; and his favor is scantily extended to any 
others. Tor in him the love of strength, as it overrides the love 
of beauty in his style, predominates also in determining his predi- 
lections; and though his style may not be altogether a gainer 
thereby, his favorites are certainly of a nobler cast. Yet this too 
is a Pagan love, arising out of the impulses and instincts of the 
natural man, and strangely at variance with the order of the 
blessed in the Kingdom of Heaven. In sooth what place can the 
chief part of the heroes, whom we are called upon to worship, find 
in the Kingdom peopled by the poor in spirit, the mourners, the 
meek, the hungerers and thirsters after righteousness, the mer- 
ciful, the pure in heart, and the peacemakers? Where would 
Mahomet stand among these men? or Mirabeau? or Danton ? or 
Napoleon? Yet in this table we have the true corrective and 
the true directory for hero-worship. At all events it can never 
be right that we should be called upon to admire, — not to speak 


432 NOTE T. 


of that profane word, to worship—men, all whose prominent 
qualities Christianity condemns, men utterly destitute of the qual- 
ities on which Christianity has stamped its seal. Surely, even 
without admitting that “self-contradiction is the only wrong,” 
consistency in this respect would become, not only those who bow 
to the divine authority of the Gospel, but those also who acknowl- 
edge it to be the most perfect body of moral and spiritual truths 
ever uttered upon earth. That it is so, few men of intelligence 
would dispute: and one proof of its being so is, that the moral 
truths after which the wise of this world strive and pant, and of 
which if they catch a glimpse they cry evenxa, and bless their 
genius, and spread out their peacock’s tail to the sun, are com- 
mon household words inthe New Testament. Thus, for instance, 
what Mr. Carlyle says, often powerfully and fascinatingly, but 
often illusively and delusively, about the paramount and sole 
worth of sincerity and earnestness, finds its truth and its limits in 
the Christian idea of faith, which attains to its consummation as 
faith in the incarnate Son of God, and as such, is the victory that 
overcomes the world. 

I have spoken thus much on Mr. Carlyle’s writings, both on 
account of the good which they are fitted to effect, and which 
they do effect, which however would be far greater but for the 
errors and exaggerations mixed up with the momentous truths 
contained in them, and also because they are specially suited to 
act on an important portion of the minds to whom my Sermons 
were immediately addressed. But the idolatry of power is by no 
means confined to him; and. in other writers it appears unmiti- 
gated. by the noble moral spirit, which forms Mr. Carlyle’s great 
attraction. In no English work that I know of is it more pain- 
fully offensive than in one of the most masterly of our age, that 
History of the War in the Spanish Peninsula, which as a military 
history is said to be unparalleled. In Coleridge’s Table-talk that 
truly wise man is represented as placing his hand on this blot. 
“Thave been exceedingly impressed with the pernicious prece- 
dent of Napier’s History of the Peninsular War. It is a speci- 
men of the true French military school: not a thought for the 
justice of the war; not a consideration of the damnable and 
damning iniquity of the French invasion. All is looked at as a 
mere game of exquisite skill; and the praise is regularly awarded 
to the most successful player. How perfectly ridiculous is the 


NOTE T. 433 


prostration of Napier’s mind, apparently a powerful one, before the 
name of Bonaparte. I declare I know no book more likely to 
undermine the national sense of right and wrong in matters of 
foreign interference than this work of Napier’s.” 

Of the justice of this censure there cannot be a more striking 
proof than the closing sentences of this able history. “ War is the 
condition of this world. From man to the smallest insect all are 
at strife » and the glory of arms, which cannot be obtained without 
the exercise of honor, fortitude, courage, obedience, modesty, 
and temperance, excites the brave man’s patriotism, and is a 
chastening corrective for the rich man’s pride. It is yet no 
security for power. Napoleon, the greatest man of whom history 
makes mention, Napoleon, the most wonderful commander, the 
most sagacious politician, the most profound statesman, lost by 
arms Poland, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and France. For- 
tune, that name for the unknown combinations of infinite power, 
was wanting to him; and without her aid the designs of man are 
as bubbles on a troubled ocean.” These words wind up the his- 
tory of a war, which, more visibly than perhaps any other, since 
that of the Greeks against the Persian invaders, exemplifies the 
moral order and government of the world, and shows how reck- 
less ambition, insolence, and crime, even when they seem to be 
irresistible, and almost omnipotent, are all the while rushing head- 
long into destruction, and how Justice and Conscience and the 
Moral Affections, though the rulers of the earth send forth their 
armies to grind them to dust, have an inextinguishable principle 
of life in them, which in time arouses sympathy, and turns upon 
and destroys the destroyer. There is something quite awful in. 
the judicial blindness which has here come upon a man gifted. 
with such intellectual power. Having beheld Satan as lightning 
fall from heaven, he says, I have investigated the matter minutely, 
and have found out it was nothing but a falling star; and that is 
nothing but an ignis fatuus. In one sense this illustrates the ten- 
dency of professional studies to narrow and spell-bind the under- 
standing, unless they are counteracted by a high moral sense, 
vindicating the freedom of the Spirit, and proclaiming that there 
is something holier and mightier in man and nature, than the 
counters and tools of the intellect. But it is far more awful that 
a historian, writing in this nineteenth century of Christianity, 
should have been utterly unable to discern, what was so manifest 

37 


434 NOTE U. 


to the Father of History, that there is a divine retribution, a 
Nemesis, striding through history, swaying its ebb and flow, com- 
manding its tumultuous waves to rise and fall, and that, as the 
early Greek dramatists saw so clearly, UPots, €& NOAAwY UnEGNAN- 
087 UATAY,— aXVOTATAY ElouvabaGd GMOTOMOY WQOLOEY 
Eig aVaYAY. 

Indeed a belief in some retributive justice displaying itself in 
the affairs of men is so universal, as to seem almost like an instinct 
of the conscience ; and perhaps there is no national literature in 
which it has not expressed itself in one form or other. An exam- 
ple, admirable in its kind, is the popular story, in Grimm’s Collec- 
tion, of the Fisherman and his Wife, who, having wish after wish 
eranted to them, go on mounting higher and higher in their de- 
mands, until they reach such a pitch of impious audacity, that all 
their gifts are wrested from them, and they are driven back to their 
previous miserable and ignominious abode. ‘This story is said to 
have been a great favorite with the peasantry of Northern Ger- 
many, when the French Emperor was at the summit of his power ; 
and they looked upon it as a prophecy of his fall. So much wiser 
were they than Colonel Napier, whose powerful and laboriously 
cultivated intellect, having refused to acknowledge that there is 
any thing above or on a level with the intellect, when it sees all its 
calculations baffled, its certainties confounded, its logical fabric 
shattered to pieces, and its almighty Dagon cast headless to the 
ground, is fain to end in an Epicurean apotheosis of Chance and 
Luck; and, after gazing intently on the catastrophe of the grandest 
series of wars in all history, exclaims with the Clown in All’s Well 
that ends Weil, “ Here is a purr of Fortune’s, sir, or of Fortune’s 
cat.” Verily Fluellen is right: “ Fortune is an excellent moral.” 


Note U: p. 121. 


The indispensableness of such a true, living idea of righteous- 
ness to render the moral law with its precepts practically efficient 
is well set forth by Baader, one of the profoundest among the . 
philosophers of Germany, in a dissertation on Kant’s Practical 
Reason ; and the arguments which he uses to prove the inefliciency 
of Kant’s ethical system, apply equally to that of the Stoics, to 
which Kant’s is closely allied. “ The consciousness that I ought to 


NOTE U. 435 


act so or so compels me to acknowledge that I could so act if I 
would: for without this conviction I should not concede that I 
ought. But no less clear is the conviction that I do not will so to 
act, that I will to act otherwise. Now this opposite will, which 
wills an opposite course of action, I am to deny, so far as I will it, 
by keeping in and keeping down my will, which must be just as 
easy as — keeping in my breath, or suicide. This denial of a life, 
which, though real, is opposed to my inward better nature, and — 
consequently diseased and monstrous, for the sake of a: better, 
healthy, and no less real life, manifesting itself as such, does not 
involve any contradiction; inasmuch as the self-denial with regard 
to the one life obtains its complement in the self-affirmation with 
regard to the other, in one and the same living subject. On the 
other hand it seems to me not only contradictory, but like a piece 
of irony, to require of a living, intelligent being, that he should 
give up that real life, of which alone he knows any thing, while he 
is openly told that he must not entertain the slightest hope of at- 
taining to any kind of information or testimony or knowledge of 
the reality of another life, the affirmation of which is nevertheless 
always implied in the denial of the former, and while for the as- 
surance of that aflirmation he has nothing whatever, except his 
own reflection, or his own imagination. More consistently, and in 
accordance with the nature of man, Religion here takes the di- 
rectly opposite line; and beginning with the affirmation and as- 
surance of another better life, she grounds her demand, that we 
should deny its antagonist, entirely on this affirmation, giving man 
a promise at the same time that, as he advances in the evolution of 
this better life, which exactly keeps pace with the involution of the 
worse, he will also acquire a clearer conviction of the reality of the 
former, and even an insight into its economy. Although in respect 
of this she directs man to the other side of the grave, this is not to 
be understood as if she bade him turn away to something that is not 
present, to something merely future, but rather as implying that 
the inward moral life, which is continually present, will alone 
abide, when the cloud of our present temporal life, which is now 
_ concealing it and preventing its full manifestation, shall have passed 
away. According to this view of that self-denial, which moral 
philosophy as well as religion demand of us, I assert without fear 
or limitation, that I consider every act of what is called philo- 
sophical self-denial, which pretends that it can always dispense 


436 NOTE V. 


wholly with the affirmation of an opposite life, as affectation and 
charlatanry, and that man may indeed repress some particular 
expression of his will in this way, but cannot reform his will, or 
change its character.” — Philosophische Schriften, 1. 19-21. 


Note V: p. 122. 


In estimating the moral value of philosophical speculations, at 
Yeast in their bearing on the character of their authors, it is ever 
necessary to compare them with that aspect of life, and that con- 
dition of society, out of which they sprang, or by which at all 
events they must have been greatly modified and determined. 
‘The reader of the Republic must keep in mind that Plato lived at 
Athens four centuries before the sacramental dignity of marr lage 
was plainly revealed to man. For, though that sanctity was in- 
volved as a germ in its original institution, the blighting atmo- 
sphere of our fallen world had miserably checked its development ; 
and sexual love had almost lost every higher element than sensual 
Rassion. Hence it was not a debasement, but rather an elevation 
of the idea of the union between the sexes, to lay down that its 
purpose was the procreation of children to be brought up as worthy 
and dutiful members of the State. Thus Plato is to be wholly ac- 
quitted of the turpitude of those systems, which in modern times 
have rejected the sanctifying light of Christianity, and have 
plunged back into the sensual mire. 

The sanctity of those affections, which spring out of our natural 
relations, was indeed recognized by the Greeks. The conflict be- 
tween these affections and the various forms of law and moral 
obligation, real or supposed, was one of the grandest themes of 
their poetry. But it was not recognized with equal distinctness 
how the man is to leave father and mother, and to cleave to his 
wife; nor how the same superiority of the nuptial to every human 
tie is to be equally binding on the woman. Nor, though their 
Poetry, in its moments of highest inspiration, seemed to catch a 
distant glimpse of the manner in which this conflict, hike every 
other, is to be healed and pacified by self-sacrifice, was a like intu- 
ition granted to other men, until this primary truth was enunciated 
in the Divine words, He who loses his life shall save it, and Every 
one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or 


NOTE WwW. 437 


mother, or wife, or children, for My name’s sake, shall receive a 
hundredfold. It is only when we have been taught that there is 
something higher and holier than human love, that we can discern 
how high and holy human love also is. 


Note W: p. 129. 


The rule proposed by Luecke, as cited above in p. 407, for de- 
termining the bearing of the Comforter’s threefold conviction, is 
chiefly serviceable with regard to the second. For there can be 
little question of whose sin, or of whose judgment, He was to con- 
vince the world; but the meaning of the tenth verse is more am- 
biguous. As the word d¢zxacoovry has diverse senses in the New 
Testament, it has been interpreted diversely in this passage. 
Hence it has been doubted whose righteousness was to be the ob- 
ject of the Comforter’s conviction; and, according to the view 
taken on this point, it has been more or less difficult to trace the 
connection between the latter part of the verse and the former. 
But if we follow Luecke’s very reasonable suggestion, it becomes 
plain that the righteousness, of which the Comforter was to con- 
vince the world, was the righteousness of Him who was going to 
the Father, and that His going to the Father was to be a proof of 
that righteousness. This is Chrysostom’s interpretation: only, as 
is so often the case, he takes it somewhat superficially, looking no 
further than Christ’s own personal righteousness, and paraphrasing 
Otxacooury by “that I have led an irreproachable life; and the 
proof of this is my going to the Father. Forsince they were 
ever bringing this charge against him, that he was not of God, and 
asserting that He was therefore an erring and sinful man, He says, 
that He will take also this pretext from them. For if their deem- 
ing Me not to be of God, proves to them that I am a sinner; 
when the Spirit has shown that I have gone there, and not for an 
hour, but to remain there, (for the words, Ye shall see Me no more, 
declare this,) what will they say then? See their evil surmise re- 
moved by these two facts. For it is neither the part of a sinner 
to work signs (for a sinner has not the power to work signs,) nor 
to be ever with God; so that you can say no longer, This man is 
a sinner, he is not of God.” The same explanation is given in 
nearly the same words by Theophylact. 

37 * 


438 NOTE W. 


Augustin, on the other hand, in his 143d Sermon, regards the 


Ouxatocvry, of which the Comforter is to convince the world, as 
our imputed righteousness, the righteousness which the believer in 
Christ receives from Him through faith. “ And if itis not through . 
the sense of touch, but with the heart, that man believeth unto 
righteousness, then evidently it is of our righteousness that the 
world, which believes only as it sees, is convinced. And here we 
are to understand the righteousness of faith, as appears from the 
following clause, Of righteousness, because I go to the Father, and 
ye shall see Me no more. As if our Lord would say: This shall be 
your righteousness, that ye believe in Me the Mediator, of whose 
ascension to the Father after his resurrection, ye shall be most 
confidently assured, though ye see Him no more in the flesh, that 
being reconciled through Him, ye may see God with the eye of 
faith. Wherefore He says to the woman, who isa figure of the 
church, when she had fallen at His feet after His resurrection, 
ouch Me not, for Ihave not yet ascended to the Father. Which 
words have a mystical sense. Believe not on Me because thou 
hast touched Me; that would be a carnal faith ; but thou shalt be- 
lieve in a spiritual sense, i. e. thou shalt touch Me by a spiritual 
faith, after I have ascended to the Father. For blessed are they 
who have not seen, and yet have believed. And this is the righteous- 
ness of faith, of whose reality, the world which has it not, is con- 
vinced in respect to us who possess it. or the just shall live by 
faith. Tence, because we rise in Him, come to the Father in” 
Him, and so also are by an invisible union made complete in right- 
eousness; or because, seeing not and yet believing we live by faith, 
since the just lives by faith ; He says, Of righteousness because I go 
to the Father, and ye see Me no more.” This explanation supplies 
that which.is wanting in Chrysostom’s; but, from omitting the pri- 
mary meaning of the passage, which Chrysostom had seized, it 
cannot succeed in establishing more than an arbitrary connection 
between the two parts of the text, feebly supported by a fanciful 
mystical exposition of cur Lord’s words to Mary after the resur- 
rection. 

In his 144th Sermon Augustin returns to this passage, and gives 
an interpretation substantially the same, but rather more fully 
worked out. “ We ask first, if the world is convinced of sin, why 
also of righteousness? For who can fairly be convinced of 
righteousness? . Or is the world convinced of its own sin, but of 


NOTE W. 439 


Christ’s righteousness? I see not h@y else it can be understood ; 
inasmuch as he says, Of sin, because they believed not on Me; of 
righteousness, because I go to the Father. They did not believe ; 
He goes to the Father. The sin therefore was theirs, but the right- 
eousness was his. But why does he speak of righteousness in this 
respect alone, that he goes to the Father? Is there not right- 
eousness also in his coming hither from the Father? Beécause it is 
mercy that He came, is it therefore righteous that He goes? that 
we may learn that righteousness cannot be fulfilled in us, if we 
have been backward to ask first for mercy, looking not every man 
on his own things, but every man also on the things of others, when 
the Apostle had enjoined this, he immediately added: Let this 
mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus ; who, being in the 
form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God ; but made 
Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a ser- 
vant, and was made in the likeness of men; and being found in 
fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto 
death, even the death of the cross. This is mercy whereby He 
came from the Father. What then is the righteousness whereby 
He goes to the Father? The Apostle goes on to say, Wherefore 
God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name that 2s 
above every name; that at the name of Jesus, every knee should 
bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under 
the earth; and that every tongue should confess, that Jesus Christ 
. is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. This is the righteousness 
whereby He goes to the Father. But if He alone goes to the 
Father, what does it avail us? How is the world convinced of 
this righteousness by the Holy Spirit? And yet unless He alone 
went to the Father, He would not have said in another place: No 
man hath ascended to heaven except He that came from heaven, even — 
the Son of Man who is inheaven. How then did He ascend alone ? 
Was it for this reason, namely, because Christ is one with all His 
members, as the head with its body? And what is His body, but 
the Church? When therefore we had fallen, and He for our 
sakes descended, what is this, No one hath ascended but He that 
descended, except that no one ascends but he who is made one 
with Him, and united as a member to the body of Him, who de- 
scended ? And therefore we ought not to think, that we are 
separate from that righteousness which our Lord mentions, when 
He says, Of righteousness, because I go to the Father. For we 


440 NOTE W. 


have risen with Christ, and we are with Christ in the meantime 
by faith and hope: but our hope shall be realized, at the final 
resurrection of the dead. Moreover when our hope shall be re- 
alized, then shall be realized also our justification. Hence the 
world-is convinced of sin, in those who do not believe on Christ ; 
and of righteousness in those who rise again members of Christ. 
Whence it is said, That we might be the righteousness of God in 
Him. For if not in Him, in nowise can we be righteousness. 
But: if in Him, He goes united with us to the Father, and this 
righteousness shall be perfected in us.” 

To this fine exposition the main objection is still, that, from the 
want of the primary link, its connection with the text is not suf- 
ficiently palpable. Hence Augustin himself is perplexed to make 
out where that conneetion lies; and in his 95th Tractate on St. 
John he modifies his explanation, referring 0¢cxacoouvy primarily 
to the Apostles, as the representatives of the faithful. ‘Here we 
must see, in the first place, how any one can be properly convinced 
of righteousness, who is justly convinced of sin. If a man is to 
be convinced of sin because he is himself a sinner, will any one 
suppose that a man is to be convinced of righteousness on 
the ground of his being himself righteous? By no means. — 
How then can the world be convinced of righteousness, except 
it be of the righteousness of believers? It is convinced of sin, 
because it believes not on Christ, and it is convinced of the right- 
eousness of those who do believe. Indeed the very attainment of 
righteousness by believers is a reproof of unbelievers. — Where- 
fore the world is convinced of its own sin, but of a righteousness 
not its own, just as darkness is made manifest by light; for all 
things which are made manifest, says the Apostle, are made mani- 
Jest by the light. For how much evil there is in those who do not 
believe, can be made to appear, not only in itself, but also fram 
the good in those who believe. And inasmuch as those who be- 
lieve not, are ever asking, How can we believe, what we do not See, 
it became necessary thus to define the believer’s righteousness, 
because I go to the Father, and ye see Me no more. For blessed are 
they who have not seen, and yet have believed. For even the faith 
of those who saw Christ, was not commended, because they believ- 
ed what they saw, i. e. the Son of Man, but because they believed 
what they saw not, i.e. the Son of God. But when that form 
of a servant was withdrawn from their sight, then was this com- 


a eee ~ 


ee ee 


5 NOTE W. 441 


pletely realized, The just shall live by faith. Therefore, he says, 
it shall be your righteousness, whereby the world shall be con- 
vinced, because I go to the Father, and ye shall see Me no more ; 
since ye have faith in One whom ye shall not see, that is, in Me; 
and when ye shall behold Me, I shall not be as ye see Me now; 
ye shall see Me no longer the lowly, but the exalted One, no 
longer the mortal. but the everlasting One:— And of this your 
faith, that is, your righteousness, the Holy Spirit shall convince 
the unbelieving world.” . 

Tauler’s interpretation is still more unsatisfactory, as such. 
“ Next the Holy» Ghost will reprove our righteousness. Alas, mer- 
ciful God, what a poor miserable thing our righteousness is in the 
eyes of God! For St. Augustin says, Woe and woe to all right- 
eousness, unless Almighty God judge it according to His compas- 
sion! for He has said by the prophet Isaiah, All your righteousness 
are as filthy rags. — Many a man is so heartily pleased with his 
own ways, that he will neither open his heart to God nor to man, 
and takes special care not to let God into his soul. If our Lord 
comes to: him with His admonitions, directly or indirectly, he fol- 
lows his own course, and heeds them not. Such men are utterly 
untoward, both to God Almighty and to all His creatures: but 
wherever the Holy Ghost comes, He reproves men’s ways and 
lives. .Wherever He is in truth, man confesses his faults plainly, 
and learns to have calmness, humbleness, and all things that be- 
long to eternal life.’ In this interpretation the distinction between 
the Comforter’s first and second work is almost lost: nor does it 
appear how the latter part of the verse is connected with the former. 

Nicolaus de Tyra is clear and sensible. ‘“ Of righteousness (he 
says), viz., Christ’s; which men of the world have not received. 
Because I go to the Father ; for by His resurrection from the dead, 
and ascension to heaven, when He returned to the Father, was 
declared His righteousness, as Peter argues, Acts i: Jesus of 
Nazareth, a man approved of God. We continues: This Jesus 
hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore being 
by the right hand of God exalted, ete. And the declaration of this 
righteousness of Christ, was a clear conviction, or condemnation 
of his persecutors.” 

By Luther, as might be expected, our text is regarded as ex- 
pressing that doctrine, which he was especially appointed to set 
forth for the later ages of the Church, as St. Paul had been for the 


442 NOTE W. 


earlier, our justification through Christ and in Christ, as the cen- 
tral truth of Christianity. “ These words too (he says) are a 
strange and wondrous speech, and unintelligible in the ears of the 
world. Righteousness, in the world, and according to all reason, 
means such a rule and way of life as one lives conformably to laws 
and commandments, whether ordained by Moses or the Emperor, 
by masters or parents; and they are called righteous, who obey 
such commandments. This right and righteousness are not re- 
jected here or done away: for they too are ordained by God; and 
He wills that they should be observed in the world, — for without 
them the government of the world cannot stand, — so that wrong 
and crimes may be punished, and again that what is right and well 
done may be protected, honored, and rewarded. But how is such 
righteousness connected with the words which Christ here speaks, 
that I go to the Father, and ye see Me no more? Who ever heard 
that this can be called righteousness ? How does this help to make 
people honest and obedient? Were there not honest people be- 
fore, especially among the Jews, and also among the Heathens, 
who governed praiseworthily and well, defended and upheld right, 
punished evil, and so forth, before Christ came or was known? 
and what does He more than this, since He went up into heaven ? 
He still lets lords and princes govern as they themselves know and 
see fit, and the people be obedient to them. But these words show 
fully that Christ here is not speaking of outward, worldly right- 
eousness, such as prevails and is necessary in this life, and such as 
Moses or the lawyers and philosophers teach in their books, and 
men can do of their own ability. For, as in the foregoing verse, 
He does not speak of such sins as the world call€ sins and pun- 
ishes, but mounts above all these, nay, above that which is good 
and well done in the eyes of the world, and sums up all in this one 
thing, the not believing in Him; so here too He speaks of a very 
different righteousness (a righteousness that is to hold ground be- 
fore God), from that which the world recognizes; and He raises 
it far and high above all life that can be lived upon earth, and at- 
taches it solely to Himself. So that both the sin which condemns 
the world, with every thing in it, consists solely in being without 
and against Christ through unbelief; and righteousness before 
God is to stand solely in and upon Christ, that is, upon these 
words, that J go to the Father, and ye see Me no more. 

“For it has been sufficiently shown above, how all men lie under 


NOTE W. 443 


sin and condemnation, with all their doings, even what may be 
good and praiseworthy before the world, nay, done according to 
the Ten Commandments. If this be true, where is righteousness ? 
or how shall one attain toit? Thus: Christ here says, This is 
righteousness, that I go to the Father, and ye see Me no more. 
Here must thou seek and find it; not in thyself, not upon earth, 
among men, be they who or what they may. For Christians are 
to know of no other righteousness, whereby they shall stand and 
be declared righteous before God, receiving the forgiveness of their 
sins and everlasting life, except this going of Christ to the Father: 
which is nothing else than that He took our sins upon His shoul-_ 
ders, and allowed Himself for their sake to be put to death upon 
the cross, to be buried, and to go down into hell, but did not re- 
main under sin, nor in death and hell, but passed through them 
by His resurrection and ascension, and now reigns mightily over 
all creatures at the right hand of the Father. Now He did not go 
thus to the Father for His own sake; for this would not have 
availed us; nor could this have been our righteousness. But as 
He came for our sakes from heaven, and became our flesh and 
blood, so for our sakes He went up again, after He had com- 
pleted the victory over sin, death, and hell, and entered into that 
government whereby He delivers us from all these, and grants us 
forgiveness of sins, power and victory over the devil and death, 
and rules in such manner that His Kingdom or rule is called, and 
is, righteousness: that is, sin and evil must pass away therein from 
before God, and men become righteous before God and well- 
pleasing to Him. 

“This righteousness however is very secret and hidden, not 
only from the word and the natural understanding, but also from 
the saints. For it is not a thought, word, or work in ourselves, as 
the sophists have dreamt concerning grace, that it is a thing in- 
fused into our hearts; but it is without and above us, namely, the 
going of Christ to the Father, that is, His suffering and resurrec- 
tion and ascension. Moreover this is placed beyond our senses 
and our eyes, so that we cannot see and feel it, but can only lay 
hold on it through faith in the word which is preached of Him, that 
He Himself is our righteousness, as St. Paul says of Him, that He 
by God is made to us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification 
and redemption, that we may not glory in ourselves, but only in 
this our Lord, before God. Verily this is a wonderful righteous- 


444 NOTE W. 


ness, that we are to be termed righteous, or to have a righteous- 
ness, which is yet no work, no thought, in short nothing in us, but 
entirely out of us in Christ, and which yet becomes truly ours 
through His grace and gift, as wholly our own as if it were ac- 
quired and earned by ourselves. This language man’s under- 
standing cannot make out, that this is to be called righteousness, 
when I neither do nor suffer any thing, nay, have no thought or 
sensation or feeling, and there is nothing in me on account of 
which I become pleasing to God, but, passing out of myself and of 
all men’s thoughts, works, and powers, I hold fast to Christ, as He 
sits above at the right hand of God, without my even seeing Him. 
Yet faith is to receive this, and to build thereupon, and to comfort 
itself therewith in time of temptation, when the devil and a man’s 
own conscience argue with him thus: Hark you! what sort of a 
Christian are you? Where is your righteousness? Do you not 
see and feel that you are a sinner? How then will you abide before 
God? In answer whereto he is to take his stand upon these words, 
and say, I know very well that I, alas, have sinned, and that there is 
no righteousness in me which ean hold before God. I must not, nor 
will I seck it or know of it in myself; for therewith I should never 
be able to come into the presence of God. But here I am told that 
Christ says, my righteousness is this, that He is gone to the Father, 
and ascended into Heaven. There it is placed, where the devil 
must needs let it remain: for he will not make Christ a sinner, or 
reprove or find fault with His righteousness. If Iam a sinner, and 
my life cannot stand before God, and I find no righteousness in me, 
yet I have another treasure, which is my righteousness, and through 
which I may boast and be bold, that is, this aseension of Christ to the 
Father, which He has given and granted to me. What is wanting 
therein? or what flaw can-you find therein? Though we see and 
feel nothing of it, yet He Himself thus describes and represents this 
righteousness, that I am not to feel it, but to lay held of it by faith 
in this word of Christ, that ye see Me no more. What need should 
I have of faith, if I could sce this before me, or perceive and feel it 
in myself ? 

“ Therefore learn this saying well, that by means of it you may 
draw a plain distinction between the righteousness whichris called 
Christ’s, and every thing else that men call righteousness. For 


here you are told that the righteousness of which Christ speaks, 


is not our work or deed, but His going to the Father or ascension. 


ee 


ee ee we eee ee 


= — re 


Se os — 


NOTE W. 445 


Now it is quite clear and palpable that the two are far and wide 
asunder. Our work is not Christ; nor is His ascension our deed 
and work. For what have I, or what has any man done toward 
His going to the Father, that is, His suffering and dying and 
rising again and sitting at the right hand of God? This right- 
eousness lies not in my obedience and good works, even those 
done according to the Ten Commandments, much less in my own 
self-appointed worship and human service, monkery, pilgrimages, 
private devotions, and the like. So that, although a man under- 
stand not these words, what is meant by going to the Father, yet 
he must hear and understand thus much, that it is not and cannot 
be our work or deed, but is given to Christ alone, and is attached 
to His person. Hence you see how shamefully we have hitherto 
gone astray and been deceived under Popery, so that we knew 
not, nor were taught any thing about such righteousness, which 
lies in Christ and His going to the Father; but the folks were 
turned away from Christ plump upon themselves; and our hope 
and trust were placed on our own works. Nay, Christ was made 
out to be a terrible Judge, whom we were to appease with our 
works, and with the intercessions of the Virgin and the Saints; 
and we, with our penance or satisfaction, were to put off our sins, 
and to earn righteousness. In such blindness and misery were 
we all plunged, that we knew nothing of the comfort we were to 
find in Christ, but, just like the Biss eats sought every thing in 
ourselves, and said, May God grant me life, that I may do penance 
Jor my sins. These are the words of Turks, Jews, and Papists : 
for here is nothing of Ghrist and His ascension; but every thing’ 
is referred to a ee and taught concerning our own Whee 
ment. 
“True it is indeed, we are to mend and to live otherwise, to do 
good and refrain from evil; but this mending and living will not 
_ attain to and do that, which Christ’s going to the Father is to do, 
namely, that we are to become righteous before God and blessed 
thereby. . Far too weak and puny to effect this are the lives and 
works of all the Saints, and the powers of all mankind. For all 
this is nothing more than what is earthly and perishable, must 
cease with us, and be left here below. Although our deeds and 
works, when done according to God’s coramandments by those 
who have faith, are well pleasing to God, and He will reward 
them both temporally and eternally, yet this will not avail to 
38 


446 NOTE W. 


bring us to God, and to give us such righteousness as shall save us 
from sin and death. Here is no other stay, except only this 
ascension of Christ, who is our chief Good and Inheritance, our 
Hope here, and our everlasting Righteousness.” 

In this explanation the primary meaning of our Lord’s words 
is passed over, as is very frequently the case in Luther’s exposi- 
tions of Scripture, which are mostly doctrinal and practical, 
rather than critical and philological. Indeed the chief part of 
them were originally delivered in the form of sermons or homilies 
or lectures; in which we naturally proceed at once, in ordinary 
cases, from the primary, immediate sense of the text to that which 
applies to our own and to all time. Besides, though Luther’s 
strong sense and his familiarity with the Bible often enabled him 
to discern the truth, by a kind of divination, even in difficult erit- 
ical questions, he had neither the habits of mind, nor the acquire- 
ments, nor even the leisure, for such investigations. He had-more 
important work, of far greater urgency: and of this work one 
main branch was the doctrinal and practical exposition of Serip- 
ture, in order to bring out its eternal, fundamental verities, and to 
deliver them from the glosses by which they had been so lament- 
ably obscured and perverted. In effecting this he may seem at 
times to draw passages to his purpose, which in themselves are 
remote or even alien from it. But at all events, when he does so, 
he is not exercising a capricious ingenuity, devising, arbitrary 
solutions, and picking out among a number of probabilities. He 
is merely setting forth that one view which he sees, and which he 
needs must see from his position, looking out under the sway of 
the living truth whereby he is possessed, subordinating all things 
to it, even as a great poet does by the power of his imagination, 
and making all things bear witness to it. This truth too, even 
when it is not explicitly enunciated in the particular passage 
under consideration, is a part of that central, pervading truth, to 
which every part of Scripture bears witness. 

Calvin’s explanation coincides with Luther’s ; but, inasmuch as 
it bears the form of keeping closer to the text, the defect in it is 
more observable. He begins by speaking of the order in which 
the conviction wrought by the Comforter proceeds from one step 
to another. ‘ We must adhere to the order of succession which 
Christ lays down. Now He says that the world must be con- 
vinced of righteousness, for men will not hunger and thirst after 


NOTE W. AAT 


righteousness, but with the utmost loathing reject whatever is 
said about it, unless they-have been touched with a sense of sin. 
It is to be held as true in respect to believers especially, that they 
cannot make progress in the Gospel, except they are first hum- 
bled; which is not effected but by a knowledge of sin. It is the 
proper office of the Law to arraign consciences before the bar of 
God, and strike them with terror; but the Gospel cannot be 
announced ag it should be, without leading from sin to righteous- 
ness, and from death to life. Hence it is necessary, that this first 
part, of which Christ speaks, should borrow from the Law. But 
here consider the righteousness which is communicated to us 
through the grace of Christ.. Christ established it in His ascen- 
sion to the Father, nor without reason. For Paul in like manner 
testifies, He was raised again for our justification ; and now He 
sits at the right hand of the Father, that He may employ the 
power which has been given to Him, and fulfil all things. And 
from His heavenly glory He sheds. over the world the fragrance 
of His righteousness. The Spirit moreover expressly declares 
through the Gospel, that this is the only way in which we are 
regarded as. righteous. Hence, after the conviction of sin, the 
next step is, to convince the world of the nature of true righteous- 
ness. It follows therefore, that Christ, upon His ascension to 
heaven, set up the kingdom of life, and now sits at the Father’s 
right hand, in order to establish true righteousness.” 

On the other hand Beza, who regards the whole promise as 
bearing chiefly on the period immediately following our Lord’s 
ascension, inclines to take Ouxacoovry in our verse as Christ’s 
personal righteousness. “Then he says, He shall convince the 
world of righteousness; not certainly of its own righteousness, for 
it must admit, willing or unwilling, that it is altogether in sin, but 
of Christ’s righteousness. Because, He says, I go to the Father, 
and ye shall see Me no more; that is, when the present world 
shall behold the Spirit poured out in the Church upon you 
through Me, it will be compelled to confess, that Iam truly right- 
eous; because when I departed from the world I was not. con- 
demned by the Father for blasphemy and impiety, for which they 
condemned Me when I called Myself His Son, but was approved 
and accepted by Him. The world, I say, will be compelled to 
confess this, and also that God has espoused My cause, when they 
see you, who avow My doctrine, adorned with so many heavenly 


448 NOTE W. 


graces ; which was indeed acknowledged immediately after the 
death of Christ, both by the centurion, and those who returned 
beating their breasts, though a little while before they had de- 
manded that He should be taken away and crucified.” At the 
same time he proposes two other explanations, understanding 
Eheyyeev in the sense of reproving; “the world is reproved of 
righteousness, because it is altogether without the knowledge of 
true righteousness, since it rejects Him, who, ruling now by His 


own virtue, justifies us;” and again, ‘of righteousness, which 


they have despised, though offered to them in Christ; but which. 


shall never again be offered to the world, since Christ has departed 
from the world, never again to return until the day of judgment.” 

The twofold purpose of the Comforter’s conviction of righteous- 
ness is thus set forth by Cartwright. “ As the Spirit speaking in 
you will bring down the pride of the world, and convince it of its 
wickedness; so also He will vindicate My righteousness which you 
now wickedly suffer to be dishonored and obscured, and will 
thence confirm the fact that Iam to go to the Father.. It was a 
truth, diligently and often repeated by the Apostles, that Christ 
was righteous and holy, and this they prove by His resurrection 
from the dead through the power of God, and by His now sitting 
at the right hand of the Father. For as the ministry of Enoch 


was sealed by his reception into heaven, and as the ministry of. 


Elijah was also abundantly approved by his translation; so are also 
the righteousness and innocence of Christ. But it was necessary 


that the ascension of Christ should be more fully attested, because, 


upon His righteousness, so fully proved by His ascension, we must 
depend for all our righteousness. For if God had not approved Him 
after His resurrection, and He had not taken a seat at His right 
hand, we could by no means be accepted of God. For if He who 
bears our image, and took all our sins upon Himself, abides still in 
death, or if, being raised from the dead, He is still excluded from 
heaven, what place in heaven shall we find? Thus it is said 
(Rom. iv. 25), He was raised again for our justification. And this 
is the reason why it behooved Christ to rise again the third day, 
and not remain long here upon earth. Whence it comes to pass, 
that they who dream He.is still lingering here upon earth, detract 
as much from His righteousness, as by this fiction of His delay 
upon earth, they take Him from the Father’s right hand ; nor do 
- they detract from the righteousness of Christ only, but also to the 


NOTE W. oe 449 


same extent from ours, who seek righteousness from Him and re- 
ceive it as by loan.” 

In Lightfoot’s Horae Hebraicae this verse is discussed at consid- 
erable length, and is interpreted in like manner as referring to 
, Christ’s twofold righteousness. “ That this is to be understood of 
the righteousness of Christ, nearly every one will readily admit. 
But of what righteousness does He speak in this passage? Of His 
personal and inherent righteousness, or His communicated and 
justifying righteousness? Of both. That, He ascended to the 
Father is sufficient proof of His own righteousness: — That He 
sheds forth the Spirit, proves the merit of His righteousness: oth- 
erwise He could not have given the Spirit in such measure. And 
that His justifying righteousness is here especially treated of, is 
very apparent from the fact, that so many and such great effects 
are attributed to it in the Scriptures. — In the Law is revealed the 
condemning righteousness of God; in the Gospel, His justifying 
righteousness. And this is the great mystery of the Gospel, that 
sinners are justified, not only through divine grace and mercy, but 
also through divine righteousness, that is, through the righteousness 
of Christ, who is Jehovah, and who is our Righteousness. And 
when the Spirit of truth comes He, convinces the world in these 
two great articles of faith, in respect to which the Jews have erred 
beyond measure; viz. in respect to true and saving faith, that is, 
faith in Christ, and the true mode and formal cause of justification, 
namely, through the righteousness of Christ. But how is the ar- 
gument constructed? J go to the Father; therefore the world 
shall be convinced of My justifying righteousness. The Saviour 
appears to intimate this: having finished the work for which the 
Father sent Me into the world, I now return to Him. But the 
work of Christ to be performed for the Father was complex; the 
manifestation of the Father, the announcement of the Gospel, and 
the conquest of the enemies of God, of sin, death, the Devil; 
but his special work, and that on which all the rest depended, was 
to render obedience or the righteousness of obedience to God. — 
This righteousness is the great and noble theme and subject of 
Ev angelical teaching, Rom.i. 17: and of this first and of necessity, 
the world was to be taught, both for the glory of the Justifier, and 
for the manifestation of the true doctrine of justification. Now, 
therefore, it could be more clearly convinced of this righteousness, 
from the fact, that Christ had returned to the Father, which He 

38 * 


450 - NOTE W. 


could not have done, had not the work been finished which He was 
to perform. Nor without reason is it added, And ye shall see Me 
no more: that is, though you are My nearest and most mtimate 
friends, you shall enjoy My presence no longer; whence the world 
may be convinced that you have the use of My merit; and espe- 
cially, when it beholds you so endowed with the graces of My 
Spirit.” The explanation of these last words is a sample of the 
unhappy excogitations to which divines have been driven through 
the determination to make every word in Scripture support a 
favorite hypothesis. 

Donne, in the Sermons already quoted, in which he treats of this 
promise of the Comforter, takes O:xaeoovry to mean our right- 
eousness, and then proceeds to speak of the manner in which the 
conviction of this our righteousness is produced by the Holy 
Spirit. “Now the reproof of the world, the convincing of the 
world, the bringing of the world to the knowledge, that, as they 
are all under sin by the sin of another, so there is a righteousness 
of another that must prevail for all their pardons, —is thus wrought. 
The whole world consisting of Jews and Gentiles, when the Holy 
Ghost had done enough for the convincing of both these, enough 
for the overthrowing of all-arguments which could either be 
brought by the Jew for the righteousness of the Law, or by the 
‘Gentile for the righteousness of works,—all which is abun- 
dantly done by the Holy Ghost in the Epistles of St. Paul 
and other Scriptures,— when the Holy Ghost had possessed the 
Church of God of these all-sufficient Scriptures, then the promise 
of Christ was performed; and then, though all the world were not 
presently converted, yet it was presently convinced by the Holy 
Ghost, because the Holy Ghost had provided in those Serip- 
tures, of which He is the Author, that nothing could be said in the 
world’s behalf for any other righteousness, than by way of pardon 
in the blood of Christ.” It is a pity that Donne was not content 
to abide by what he had already said in the same Sermon, in the 
passage cited above (p. 385), where he showed that our Lord’s 
promise with regard to the conviction of the world was not meant 
to be accomplished immediately, but was to receive an ever-widen- 
ing fulfilment in generation after generation. ‘This is one of the 
temptations to which ingenious men are exposed, not to lay firm 
hold on the truth, even when they have got hold of it, but to let it 
slip, while they are chasing some new phantom which starts up be- 


% 
| a a 


& 
NOTE W. 451 


fore their mind. Donne, from the peculiar character of his intel- 
lect, from his acuteness, his rich fancy, and that wit which is the 
combination of the other two qualities, would have been especially 
apt to run info this error of sophists and rhetoricians, — which his 
reverence for the Fathers would rather have encouraged than re- 
pressed, — had it not been for his earnest devotion, and his deep 
conviction of sin, which give a life and reality to his sermons, such 
ds no ingenuity can attain to. Still there are many passages in his 
writings, where it is plain that he forgot to pull in his leaders ; and 
they gallop away with him at times over hill and dale, over 
ploughed land and waste. | 

Lampe, adopting the view that é:zavo Guvy is our righteousness, 
enforces and illustrates it from his rich stores of scriptural learn- 
ing. ‘ When he speaks of righteousness he means that which is 
directly opposed to sin, and which is the ground of judgment, even 
the righteousness of the sinner before God, which is from Jehovah, 
Isaiah xliv. 17, in Jehovah, Isaiah xlv. 23, and Jehovah himself, 
Jer. xxii. 6. Conviction of righteousness involves this, that, 
while one recognizes the justice of God in condemning the sinner, 
he sees no way left to him of standing before the judgment of 
God, and therefore wholly disavows his own righteousness (Ps. 
exlii. 2, Isaiah Ixiv. 10); and that, at the same time, he is most 
fully persuaded of the truth and sufficiency of the ransom paid by 
Christ (Jer. lil. 23), so that there is begotten within him a desire 
or thirst after righteousness. ‘This conviction is necessary ; be- 
cause this righteousness is the only medium of reconciliation with 
‘God:—-wherefore ignorance of it destroyed Israel: Rom. x. 3. 
Still this righteousness could not be apprehended without the aid 
of the Spirit. This admirable way of appeasing the divine right- 
eousness is a mystery impervious to the light of nature: Phil. xiv. 
7.— Nowhere is it revealed but in the Gospel: Rom.i.17. And 
this is not yet sufficient. For through the natural pride of man 
he is so prone to establish his own righteousness, that, unless he is 
humbled by the efficacy of the Spirit, he can never deny all con- 
fidence in the flesh. 

“ The first reason is, because Jesus went to His Father. To 
demonstrate this declared truth to the conscience is the work of 
the Holy Spirit in the world. For undoubtedly it pertains to the 
greatest mysteries of the faith: 1 Tim. iii. 16. But this truth, 
when demonstrated, was the strongest argument for the righteous- 


452 NOTE W. 


ness which was brought in. For going to the Father through suf- 
ferings, He pledged His heart, which could be expected from no 
creature (Jer. xxx. 21). And thus He proved Himself to be Him 
who came willingly (Ps. xl.), who had the power to lay down His 
life (John x. 18). Going through death to the Father, when He 
commended Eis Spirit into His hands, We declared Uimself to be 
that immaculate High Priest (Heb. vii.), who challenged all His 
adversaries (Isaiah ].): whence even in the article of death He 
had the right to award Paradise to the thief, and immediately after 
His departure was justified in the Spirit, 1 Tim. iii. 16. But this 
righteousness was especially shown, when through His ascension to 
heaven, He went to the Father. For by this approach He occu- 


: : : te : 
pied the throne of that kingdom, which was founded in righteous- 


ness (Ps. Ixxxix. 14, xcvil. 2), which was the reward of His labor 
Cs. lin. 10, 11), and which consequently he could not oecupy, 
without having accomplished all which was expected from our 
Sponsor and High Priest. Admitted therefore by the Father He 
was declared the ‘ Servant in whom He was well pleased, Is. xlii. 
1. Moreover, with His departure to the Father was joined that 
effusion of the Holy ‘Spirit, which also itself showed that a plenary 
righteousness was acquired. For after it the Most Holy could at 
length be anointed: Dan. ix. 24. 

“ Another reason is given, viz. that the disciples should see Jesus 
no more. — This truth hkewise must be taught by the Spirit. For 
so possessed were the disciples with the expectation, common 
among the Jews, of a temporal kingdom soon to be established by 


the Messiah, that they could not be divested of it except by the’ 


illumination of the Holy Spirit. Moreover these words may be 
understood to be connected in a threefold manner with those 
which precede. By the first, they are able to give an explanation 
of the argument immediately preceding. — And then He declares 
‘the work is so finished, that He can have no more occasion for 
returning to the earth. By the second, these words may be re- 
garded as an inference from the preceding.— For there was no 
small prejudice against the cause of Christ originating in the fact 
that He should be seen no more by His disciples. So in order 
that our Lord may avoid this objection, He declares the true rea- 
son, why he should withdraw Himself from their view, to be no 
other, than His going to the Father, and occupying a throne above 
all earthly kingdoms. But if any one rejects the ellipsis he may 


ee Ne a we 


| 
j 
. 
| 
. 


NOTE W. 453 


consider our words a new argument — that eternal righteousness 
is brought in. Upon this reasoning the Apostle throws light in 
Hebrews, vill. 4. For if He were on earth, or what amounts to the 
same thine, if He should remain on earth He would not be a priest. 
For since a priest must have a sanctuary in which to make offer- 
ing, and an earthly sanctuary would not become the Messiah, it 
was necessary that He should have a heavenly one, and that, leav- 
ing earth, He should enter into it. This argument is worthy of 
more note from the fact, that the disciples could thus have a de- 
fence against the false prophets, saying: Lo, here is Christ, and 
lo, there ; since the true followers of Christ look for no visible ap- 
pearance of Him on earth, nor even in that glorious kingdom of 
the last days, and Blessed are they who have not seen and yet have 
believed.” 

By the Arminian divines Chrysostom’s historical view is fol- 
lowed. The explanation given by Grotius has already been quoted 
in p. 372. Wetstein’s is to the same effect. “He (the Spirit) will 
show the accused, that is, Christ, to have been innocent and right- 
eous, because He is received into heaven, and sits there at the 
right hand of the Father, and reigns forever.” In Hammond’s 
Paraphrase the meaning of this unfathomable declaration is hap- 
pily reduced to a minimum: “ He shall vindicate and justify My 
mission and innocence by My ascension to heaven, taking Me 
@way out of the reach of human malice, and rewarding My 
patience with His consolations ;’ ” as though our blessed and eter- 

nal Lord had been a good man, who, having met with cruel usage 
in this life, was to be remunerated for his sufferings in the next. 
Even Socinus has not lowered these words more by his singular 
_ explanation in his Ezplicationes Locorum sacrae Seripturae: “ Of 
righteousness, because it is righteous, or was, that Christ whom they 
had treated so shamefully, should be removed from the sight of 
men, and never be beheld by them.” 

Bossuet, in his 20th Meditation sur jusuieattetie explains 
Ouzatoovvy with reference to the righteousness of faith. “Lo 
understand this second conviction of the Holy Spirit, we must 
know that Christian. righteousness comes by faith; according to 
that saying of the prophet, repeated three times by St. Paul: Zhe 
just shail live by faith. But the true evidence of this faith, is the 
believing of that which one does not see. So long as Jesus 
Christ was upon earth, His presence had sustained the faith of 


454 | NOTE W. 


His disciples: as soon as he was arrested their faith was shaken ; 
and those who before believed in Him as the Redeemer of Israel, 
began to speak faintly: We trusted that it had been He which 
should have redeemed Israel; as much as to say, but now, since 
His passion, we have lost this hope. You see then the faith of the 
Apostles died with Jesus Christ. But when the Holy Spirit had 
brought it to life, so that they were more constantly and perfectly 
attached to the person and the teaching of their Master than they 
had been during His life, we see in them a genuine faith and in 
this faith the true righteousness; which being the work of the 
Spirit, it follows, that He has given to the world a perfect convic- 
tion of righteousness.” This shows a very low, superficial con- 
ception of the meaning and power of faith, and its connection with 
Christian righteousness; as though this righteousness were grant- 
ed to a mere act of the understanding, exercised somewhat arbi- 
trarily : and as though the worth of faith depended, not on its own 
mAnoogogta, but on the remoteness and invisibleness of its object. 
Such however is the prevalent notion of faith in the Church of 
Rome; nor could one expect any thing profounder from the elo- 
quent French rhetorician. 

The primary meaning of our text is clearly set forth by Titt- 
mann. “ Our Lord after death seemed to have deserted His cause, 
and to be as the Jews exclaimed, a seditious person, an impostor, 
the pretended King of the Jews. But after He had returned from 
death to life, and had ascended to heaven, then at length it was 
perceived that He was righteous, holy, innocent, and in truth, 
what he professed to be, the Son of God, sent to be the Saviour 
of mankind. If it had not been so, God would not have raised 
Him from the dead, nor received Him to heaven, nor sent the 
Holy Spirit. And this dexatoovvn here signifies, viz. the Holi- 
ness and innocence of Christ. This was rendered manifest when 
the Apostles, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, preached among all 
nations, and first among the Jews, that Jesus, whom they had de- 
spised, assailed with insults,— nailed to the cross, the same had 
returned from death unto life, had gone to the Father, and was 
crowned with Divine glory and majesty. This then is the idea: 
Ife will cause, doubtless through the Apostles, the world, i 
cially the Jewish, to know what and how great a being I am.” 
And this the disciples themselves at length fully and clearly un- 
derstood, when their Lord no more abode among them, a humble 


7 


NOTE W. 455 


man, with a visible body, and yet they perceived Him to be still liv- 
ing and powerful, and suffering none of those things which He had 
promised to fail; this it was which the Lord meant to intimate by 
these words, zal ovum éte Oewgeiré fe, and ye see Me no more.” 

Among the recent commentators on St. John, Luecke, in his elak- 
orate work, examines the various explanations of this passage. 
“ Aizatoovvy in this verse is interpreted to be duxavoovvn tov 
@<ov, in St. Paul’s sense, by Cyril, Augustin, Erasmus, Luther, 
Melanchthon, Calvin, and most of the Protestant exegetical writ- 
ers of the 16th and 17th centuries; as also by Lampe, Michaelis, 
Storr. So it is by De Wette, only with this modification, that he 
does not refer it to the mode of obtaining justification, as set forth by 
St. Paul, but to the victorious power of God’s justice manifesting 
itself to the world. If however, according to the above-stated her- 
meneutical canon, dexaeoovry in our verse must be understood of 
the personal righteousness of Christ, it is impossible to explain 
this passage by St. Paul’s doctrine of the relation between the sin 
of the world and the atoning righteousness of God. According 
to this relation, the explanatory ground which follows 072, ought 
to be, that Jesus gave His life for the salvation of the world, or 
devoted Himself for the world (xvi. 19): this however is not con- 
tained in the words o7e MAYO) zt. A. I pass over the explana- 
tion of dexacoovrn given by Grotius, as referring to the distrib- 
utive justice of God, and that of the Socinians, who interpret it of 
objective justice, in Kuinoel’s words, “of that which is just and 
right, which ought to be done, while I go.to the Father.” By the 
above-mentioned canon every interpretation is inadmissible, which 
does not proceed on the assumption that dexacoovury is the per- 
sonal righteousness of Christ. If we take tis as established, the 
10th verse, viewed in connection with the whole EhEYYOS, must 
be understood as follows: while the Holy Ghost convinces the 
world that it is sin not to believe in Jesus, He also proves to the 
-world, that that which it persecutes is righteousness, in other 
words, that Christ, whom it hates, although crucified, is no male- 
factor, as it supposes, but the Just One. Thus the éleyyog 
advances, from the sin of the world, which does not believe, be- 
cause it does not recognize the-righteousness of Christ, to the 
proof of Christ’s righteousness. But this is proved by His going 
to the Father, into glory.” 7 


456 NOTE W. 


Tholuck agrees with Luecke: and so does Olshausen, -but, as 
usual, looks more closely into the spiritual meaning of the passage. 
“ Asthe Spirit reveals the negative side (sin), so in the second 
place does He also reveal the positive side, righteousness. Noth- 
ing is more natural than that to the insight into sin should be 
added an insight into that condition where sin is removed, that is, 
righteousness. — If Christ’s going to the Father were mentioned — 
alone, this might be regarded as a testithony of His perfect right- 
eousness; but then the words, ovzére Oswoeiré sé, have no 
meaning. We must therefore take um@yeuy as expressing His 
removal from sight, and must combine this His bodily absence 
with His invisible, all-pervading efficacy. Then we get the fol- 
lowing sense, which is perfectly suited to the context: the Spirit 
convinces, as of sin, so of righteousness, for He makes manifest 
how the Saviour, though unseen in the body, works invisibly, and 
perfects our inward life. — Here the view taken by the Reformers, 
Luther, Melanchthon, Calvin, and subsequently maintained by 
Lampe and Storr, that dsxacoouvrvy in this place refers to our 
justification before God, requires consideration, The advocates 
of this interpretation take the supplementary clause in the follow- 
ing manner: The Spirit also works the conviction of the justifica- 
tion necessary for sinful man; for after My atoning death Igo to 
the Father, and will work invisibly for you. But if this supposi- 
tion were tenable, the clause must necessarily have spoken ex- 
pressly of the death of Christ, which is only remotely alluded to 
in the words VEayO) 00S TOV Tlatéou, in so far as it was to pre- 
cede His ascension. Nor can any meaning be extracted from the 
words zai ovzére DewMosizé fe, unless they are referred to the 
invisible dispensations of grace; but these belong to the work of 
sanctification, not of justification, and therefore do not suit this in- 
terpretation. Moreover, not only does duzavoovvy never mean 
justification in the language of St. John, but not even in that of 
St. Paul. The very profound and true idea involved in the 
Lutheran doctrine of Justification is expressed by AoyiSeo Gas els 
duxavoovyny, never by dexaoovry alone.” 

Stier’s exposition exhibits his intimate knowledge of Scripture, 
both of the letter and the spirit. “ Here we have wholly to reject 
the interpretation, which is a special favorite with the Rationalists 
of our days, but unhappily has also been adopted by pious in- 


NOTE W. 457 


quirers, both of ancient and modern times, according to which our 
Lord means nothing further, than that the Holy Ghost will con- 
vince the world of His righteousness, and’ that of His cause, — 
that, though He was rejected, He was innocent and just, and there- 
fore that they who believed in Him had right on their side. Even 
Augustin says, ‘The world will be convinced of the righteousness 
of those who believe;’ but he did not mean that this was the only, 
and the whole sense. In proof of this, it is contended, our Lord’s 
Resurrection and Glorification are referred to in the words Unayo 
m00¢ tov Ilatéva’ so that Ore would not be declarative, as we 
above stated it to be. Grotius, with a slight modification of this 
view, makes dvzxatoovvy absolute, supplying G@eov. ‘The Spirit 
shows God to be a just Ruler, who will receive Me beyond all 
contact of injury, (for this is meant by saying, ye shall not sce Me, 
see above vii. 86,) into participation of His own glory. Hezel, 
who even remarks that His going to the Father was itself His 
duxacoovvn, says that the Spirit was to convince the world that it 
was fitting and necessary that Jesus should go through death to 
the Father, in opposition to their false notions, —that the true 
Messiah was really to die. The main part however, as was before 
said, take dexaeoourn simply for My righteousness and innocence. 
What shall we say to all this? In the first place we will recog- 
nize the truth which lies amid the error, and admit that, according 
to the phraseology of St. John, we cannot, as. in St. Paul, take 
Otxatoovv”n to mean imputed righteousness or ‘justification; so’ 
that primarily it must here be the Ocxatoovrvn Xovotov. We 
admit that the clauses dependent on Ore point to the three geni- 
tives, —the apaoria TOU ~06m0U, that they do not believe, — 
Ouxacoovvn éuov, that I go to the Father, — and the xglovg tov 
HOYOVTOS TOU “xOOMOY zovrov. ‘This however, so far from ex- 
hausting, scarcely touches the grounds and purposes for which the 
world, after being convinced of its sin, was to be convinced of 
Christ’s righteousness, and of the judgment of Satan. With the 
same, or greater propriety may we supply tov ~00m0U in all the 
three cases, if we look to the application and appropriation of the 
three convictions which the Holy Spirit purposes that the world 
should make. For when the world has had its sin set before it, 
will not the Spirit show and offer it a righteousness instead thereof ? 


39 


A58 NOTE W. 


will He allow it to fall, without further help, cut off from the right- 
eousness of Christ, into the judgment of Satan? Therefore, al- 
though most weighty authorities, even among the ancients, found 
nothing in this verse beyond the righteousness of Christ, and al- 
though they are supported by a concurrence of modern commen- 
tators, from Beza, Bengel, Morus, Tittmann, down to Olshausen, 
Luecke, and Tholuck, —the last of whom adopts the explanation 
of ne Ovxalov yoo yt OLO ME TO MOGEVEOD HL 00S TOV 
Osov nol ovvetvar aut@ cél,—confirming it by the words 
Zornaiw On év Tivevuare in 1 Tim. iii. 16,— yet we cannot pos- 
sibly content ourselves with this sense, but look upon the 0uzato- 
CUYy Xovorov as merely the basis forthe offer of this righteous- 
ness to every one who even now will believe. This is the view 
given correctly, though not fully enough, by Klee, that He is the 
Righteous One per eminentiam, the Holy One of God, and the 
Sanctification and Justification of the world. There still remains 
an acquittal for the sin of the world; and Christ did not go to the 
Father to judge the world, but the Prince of this world. Is not 
this evident from the connection between this verse and the next? 
Else the necessary consequence from the second proposition, that 
Christ, whom the unbelief of the world crucified, is the Righteous 
One, must be the condemnation of the world. 

- But let us look back at its connection with the a verse, 
that we may discern its real foree on this side also. The sinner, 
who retains and consummates his sin by unbelief i in the Saviour, 
will either wholly give up all thought and care about becoming 
righteous, or, — what in the immediate bearing of the whole pas- 
sage on Israel, and its fulfilment by them, was the commonest re- 
sult, — will invent and fabricate a false mghteousness of his own 
for himself. Against both of these procedures the Spirit of Truth 
must bear witness: and hence we cannot sufficiently keep in mind 
that in the second proposition also éevSee tov x0ouov forms the 
object of mel duxacoovrng. According to the spirit of the world, 
without the great revelation of the Comforter, we should give a to- 

tally different sense to the two correlative terms, sin and righteous- 
ness. By sin we should merely understand the transgression of 
the law. Under righteousness, we should either mean that God 
alone and His Holy One is righteous; or we should bring forward 
something about our own righteousness and virtue. Between 


\ 


NOTE W. 459 


these two senses lies the marvellous new testimony of the Spirit. 
Azatootyn, in its application to the world, —to this assertion. 
we must cling, and from this we must start, — must be the complete 
opposite to @uagria. Moreover we must note, in tracing the con- 
nection and transition between the two propositions, that, inas- 
much as thé overthrow of that false righteousness, which is mere 
sin so long as it is in unbelief, is prepared and included in the 
9th verse, the 10th, if there is to be a full organic progress of 
thought, must take up this point. Consequently in full, ‘the Holy 
Ghost convinces the world of righteousness, partly, that it must 
needs have a righteousness, partly, that it cannot find this right- 
eousness in itself, partly,-that it must seek this righteousness in 
another, namely in Christ. Thus the passage is explained by 
Rieger, in his Herzenspostille, out of the depth of his practical un- 
derstanding and familiarity with Scripture: and is he exegetically 
“wrong? We need only at the utmost modify his expressions, and 
say, In that the Holy Ghost convinces the world of sin, so long as 
+t does not believe in Christ, He has already brought all its right- 
eousness to nought: so that Rieger’s first two thoughts are com- 
prised in the previous conviction : and when, in immediate oppo- 
sition to this, the righteousness of Christ is attested, can this be 
meant in any other sense, than that this is and will be the only 
righteousness of those who believe in Him? As Gerlach says, 
maintaining the true meaning against the modern commentators, 
‘He convinces the world that there is a righteousness of God, made 
manifest in Christ, which justifies and sanctifies the sinner.’ 

“ As the EheyEes of the Holy Ghost cannot but include the con- 
viction, that there is no other righteousness than that of God in 
Christ, of Christ before God, — for the worst, most obstinate lie of 
sin, the cause of the most wilful unbelief, is the dream of our own 
righteousness, — so must it include the offer of Christ’s righteous- 
ness to faith, which on the Day of Pentecost (Acts ii. 38), and con- 
tinually afterward, in the preaching of the Apostles, follows im- 
mediately after the declaration of sin, Or can it be conceived 
that our Lord here, where He was assuredly giving a complete out- 
line of the preaching of the Spirit to the world, should have made 
no mention of this? Here therefore the interpretation which we 
reject leaves a great chasm, places the sinful world and the right- 
eous Christ in total separation from each other, although in’ fact 


460 NOTE wW. 


the Spirit everywhere offers and holds out Christ to the world, 
unto righteousness. 

“ Herewith alone, we assert finally with full confidence, the 
explanatory Ore completely agrees. Luecke says, ‘In that case 
the explanation which followed must have been, that Jesus was 
giving His life for the salvation of the world, or sacrificing Him- 
self for the world; this however does not lie in ore Un ayo.’ We 
reply, it does lie therein; for this ura@yeiy comprises His death, 
the overlooking of which is a great detriment to the meaning; 
and just before also, in v. 7, UNAYELY, if rightly interpreted, 
implies the act of gaining, obtaining, atoning: hence it does so 
likewise in v. 10. Christ alone goes to the Father for us, as our 
Mediator and High-priest: see the very same thought expressed 
in Hebr. ix. 24. Moreover, what is here said of not seeing Him, 
must refer, if it is to have a sense suited to the context, to faith 
in the unseen, and thus sets the righteousness of Christ, which is 
to be apprehended by faith, in opposition to the sin of unbelief. 
Why our Lord says Oéwoeite, addressing the disciples, has been 
explained by Bengel. ‘Nor yet without reason is the verb in the 
second person: for if any one would be likely to see Jesus it 
would be the Apostles; and yet these were the very ones to 
believe, and to invite others to believe.’ 

“ All this sufficiently refutes what has been said against the 
exposition adopted by the Reformers, concerning the righteous- 
ness of Christ offered to faith. It is a remarkable justification of 
this exposition, that, after the way had been prepared for it by 
Cyril and Augustin, the true meaning of our Lord’s words was 
first brought forward clearly by the Reformers, with whom Eras- 
mus concurs. In fact this is the only practical exposition: it has 
continually forced itself ever since on all preachers and practical 
expositors endowed with evangelical knowledge, and alone agrees 
with the actual testimony of the Spirit to the world fr “om the day 
of Pentecost, hitherto. For, as Luther says, ‘we are not to know 
any other righteousness wherewith we can stand before God, — 
except this going of Christ to the Father, which is nothing else 
than that He took our sin upon His shoulders, and allowed Hing 
self by reason thereof to be slain upor the cross, to be buried 
and to go down into hell, yet did not remain under sin and death 
and hell, but passed through them by His Resurrection and 


NOTE X. AG1 


*% 


Ascension” Thus He who was exalted gives repentance to Israel 
and forgiveness of sins (Acts v. 31) ; and by Him all that believe 
are justified (Acts xil. 39). This is the righteousness of God, 
according to Rom. ii. 26, given from heaven, and having validity 
in heaven. The watchword of the Reformation, the Lord our 
Righteousness, or Christ our Righteousness, may be misunderstood 
and misused; but it is and must ever be the centre of all the 
preaching of the Holy Spirit toa sinful and self-righteous world: 
and this is here declared beforehand by Christ Himself.” 


Nore X: p. 159. 


Every scholar will remember the account which Thucydides 
gives of the demoralization produced at Athens by the plague. 
Tt is such a revelation of the dark places of human nature, and so 
plainly shows how ‘nefficient the intensest anticipation of suffering 
is to produce a conviction of judgment, that I will insert it here. 
« The pestilence also in other respects led to much greater wick- 
edness in the city. For people now lightly ventured to do those 
things for sensual gratification, which they heretofore concealed. 
They saw the sudden change of fortune, the rich cut off at once, 
and their wealth passing to such as were before destitute ; so that 
they thought it best to lay hold of swift enjoyments and delights, 
deeming their bodies and possessions alike ephemeral. And no 
one was inclined to labor for an honorable reward in prospect, 
considering it uncertain whether he should not perish before 
reaching it. Whatever was for the present agreeable or lucra- 
tive from any source, that was considered good and useful. No 
fear of God or law of man restrained them; for they esteemed 
piety and impiety to be alike, because they saw that all equally 
perished; or they doubted whether they should live to be tried 
and punished for their crimes; or in view of the much greater 
judgment to which they were doomed, they thought fit to enjoy 
somewhat of life, before it fell upon them.” 11. § 53. 

Arnold, who was fond of giving a reality to his religious teach- 
ing, by showing the bearing of its principles, and exemplifying 
their operation, in social and political life, remarks, in his first 
Sermon, how the same facts were observed on other like occasions. 
«Those who have read the story of the Great Plague of London in 

/ 39°* 


462 NOTE X. 


Ps 


1666, or that of Florence in 1348, or of any other seasons of 
great pestilence which have visited countries possessing a knowl- 
edge of the Gospel, may remember the striking effect produced 
upon men’s minds by those sweeping calamities. It seemed as if 
all were awake from a dream, had turned away from acting an 
unreal part, and were at once suddenly sobered and made in ear- 
nest. There was a separation broadly and strongly marked 
between the good and the wicked, like that which will take place 
in another world. Those who knew what would become of them 
after death, but had been playing away their lives in the usual 
follies of mankind, all began now to crowd the churches, to pray 
with most hearty sincerity, and to look upon sin in its true light, 
as their worst and most deadly enemy. The unbelievers on the 
contrary, those who had hardened their hearts effectually by a 
course of godless living, they too threw aside the covering which 
they had merely worn for the sake of the world’s opinion, and 
began to serve their master, the Devil, without disguise. Thus the 
churches were thronged in one place, whilst every sort of abomi- 
nable wickedness, open blasphemy, lewdness, rioting, robbery, 
and murder, were practised without restraint in another. In 
‘short, the servants of God and of Satan took their part openly ; and 
few, if any, held a middle course between them.” Even at Athens 
some persons were roused to a higher pitch of magnanimity: of 
MOELNS TL méeramocovmevor, Thucydides says, aoyuyn ngel- 
dovy gor avtav, éoLovtEes naga TOS phous. 

The ordinary occurrence of crimes at executions is noticed by 
Donne in his 37th Sermon, when he is urging that the fear of the 
Almighty Judge, if we kept it always before us, would keep men 
from sin. “ We have seen purses cut at the sessions and at exe- 
cutions ; but the cutpurse did not see the judge look upon him: 
We see men sin over those sins to-day, for which judgment was 
inflicted but yesterday; but surely they do not see then that the 
judge sees them.” It is sad to think that, in the face of this 
observation, legislators should have continued for centuries acting 
under the notion that punishment is almost the only preventive of 
crime, 


‘ 


NOTE Y. 463 


Norn Y: p. 168. : 


With regard to the meaning of the Comforter’s third convic- 
tion, the great body of divines are in the main tolerably well 
aoreed. Chrysostom indeed seems to narrow the sense, by rest- 
ing the evidence of the judgment passed upon the Prince of this 
world almost entirely upon the fact of the Resurrection. “ Here - 
again He turns the discourse upon righteousness, because He 
overcame the adversary. But as a sinner He could not have 
conquered ; nor would a righteous man have been able to do this. 
‘For that he has been judged by Me, they shall know, who tram- 
ple him under foot hereafter, and are clearly informed of My 
resurrection, which shows Me to have judged him; for he was 
unable to retain Me. Since then they charged Me with having a 
devil and being a deceiver, these things shall hereafter be shown 
to be absurd; for I could not have subdued him, had I been 
chargeable with sin: but now ke has been judged and cast out.’ ” 
But Theophylact, while in the main he copies Chrysostom, gives a 
wider proof of this great victory, in the presence of the Spirit. 
“ Aoain the Spirit shall show Me to be just and without sin, 
because the ruler of this world has been judged and overcome by 
Me. For when they said, ‘He hath a devil, and ‘He doeth won- 
ders by Beelzebub,’ and ‘is a deceiver,’ all these things, He saith, 
shall be proved vain, when the devil is shown to be judged, and is 
exhibited to all as conquered by Me: which indeed I could not 
effect, unless I were stronger than he, and free from every sin. 
But how was this shown? At the coming of the Spirit all believ- 
ers in Christ despised and trampled under foot the ruler of this 
world. Hence it was shown by these also, that he had been much 
before judged by Christ.— And besides, the Spirit convinces the 
unbelieving world of righteousness, that is, that he is destitute of 
righteousness who believes not on the righteous Jesus, who, by 
reason of His righteousness, was received up into heaven. He 
convinces and judges him as cayeless, because when Satan was so 
crippled in power he did not desire to escape from him.” 

Augustin, in his 95th Tractate on St. John, refers the judgment 
to that at the end of the world. “ He also will convince of Judg- 
ment because the prince of this world is judged. Who is this, un- 
less it be one of whom He says in another place, Behold the prince 


464 NOTE Y. 


of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me? i. e. nothing in his 
own right, nothing which belongs to him, in short no sin at all. 
For through sin is the Devil prince of this world. For it is not 
heaven and earth, and all things therein, of which the Devil is 
Prince, in which sense the world is understood, when it is said, 
And the world was made by Him: but the Devil is prince of that 
world, concerning which it .is directly added, and the world knew 
Him not: that is, unbelieving men, of which the whole habitable 
globe is full: among whom the believing world suffers tribulation, 
which He by whom the world was made has chosen out of the 
world; of which Himself hath said, The Son of Man came not to 
condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 
When He judges the world is condemned, by His intervention the 
world is saved ; since as a tree is full of leaves and fruit, and a field 
of chaff and wheat, so the world is full of unbelievers and believ- 
ers. Therefore the prince of this world is that prince of darkness, 
i. e. of unbelievers, — from whom that world is separated, — which 
is thus addressed, Ye were sometime darkness, but now are ye light 
in the Lord,—the prince of this world is he of whom it is else- 
where said, Now is the prince of this world cast out, and judged ; 
since he is irrevocably doomed to the judgment of everlasting fire. 
And so of this judgment, by which the prince of this world is 
judged, is the world convinced by the Holy Spirit; since it is 
judged along with its own prince, whom it has proudly and wick- 
edly followed. For if God, as saith the Apostle Peter, spared not 
the Angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered into 
chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment; why is not the 
world convinced of this judgment by the Holy Spirit, since the 
Apostle said this by inspiration of the Spirit ?” 
In his 143d Sermon, on the other hand, Augustin applies our 
Lord’s promise to the casting out of Satan through the power of 
‘hrist from the hearts of believers. ‘Nor can the world excuse 
itself for not believing in Christ, on the ground that it is hindered 
by the Devil. For to believers the prince of this world is east out, 
that he may no longer. work in the hearts of men, whom Christ has 
begun to possess by faith; as he does work in the children of unbe- 
lief, whom for the most part he instigates to tempt and afflict the 
righteous. For since he, who ruled inwardly, is cast out, he now 
fights from without. Therefore although, through his persecutions, 
the Lord will guide the meek in judgment; still he is now judged, 


4 
; 


NOTE Y. 465 


m the very fact that he is cast out. And of this judgment is the 
world convinced; for in vain does he, who will not believe on 
Christ, complain of the devil, whom judged, that is, cast out, and 
for our discipline allowed to attack us from without, the martyrs, 
not only men, but even women and boys and girls, have overcome. 
Now in whom have they overcome, but in Him on whom they have 
believed, and whom seeing not, they loved, and by whose domin- 
ion in their hearts they have been delivered from a most malignant. 
(pessimo) lord. And all this by grace, that is, by the gift of the 
Holy Ghost. Rightly then doth the same’ Spirit convince the 
world, both of sin, because it believeth not on Christ; and of right- 
eousness, because they who have had the will have believed, al- 
though they saw not Him on whom they believed; and by His resur- 
rection have hoped that they themselves also should be perfected 
in the resurrection; and of judgment, because if they had had the 
_ will to believe, they could be hindered by none, since the prince of 

this world has been judged already.” . 

In the 144th Sermon, which, as has already been observed, be- 
longs to a different, probably an earlier, period of his life, and 
which is derived from a different collection, and has merely been 
placed next to the preceding one by the editors in consequence of 
the similarity of the subject, Augustin’s explanation coincides with 
that given in the Tractate-on St. John. “ And therefore of judg- 
ment too is the world convinced because the prince of this world 
has been judged already ; that is, the devil, the prince of the un- 
righteous, who in heart dwell only in this world which they love, 
and therefore are called the world; as our conversation is in 
heaven, if we have risen again with Christ. Therefore as Christ 
together with us, that is, His body, is one; so the devil with all the 
ungodly whose head he is, with, as it were, his own body, is one. 
Wherefore as we are not separated from the righteousness, of 
which the Lord said: Because I go to the Father; so the ungodly 
are not separated from that judgment, of which He said: Because 
the prince of this world has been judged already.” 

Tauler strangely misunderstands the meaning of the judgment, 
which is to be the. subject of the Comforter’s éleyyos, but writes 
beautifully, as he always does. “The Holy Ghost reproves man 
for his judgment. What are these judgments? It means that 
every man passes judgment on his neighbor, civil or spiritual, and 
that they have no eyes for their own faults and sin, although 


466 NOTE Y. 


Christ has’ said, With what measure thow metest, with the same it 
shall be measured to thee again. Ye shall judge nobody, that ye 
be not judged. Unhappily all men, bishops, prelates; priests, and 
monks, provincials and abbots, gentle and simple, will try and judge 
one another ; and therewith ye build great thick walls between 
God and yourselves. Beware thereof as ye love Almighty God 
and everlasting happiness; and prove and judge yourselves. This 
is useful to you, if ye desire to be blessed, and to stand, and if ye 
would escape being judged by Almighty God, and by all His 
chosen saints. A man should judge nothing that is not a plain 
mortal sin. He should much sooner and rather bite his tongue 
that it bleed, than judgé a man in little or in great things. One 
should leave this to the eternal judgement of God; for from man’s 
judgment upon his neighbor there grows a complacency in oneself, 
an evil arrogance, and a contempt for one’s neighbor. This fruit 
is therefore truly a work of the Devil, whereby many a heart is 
defiled; and then the Holy Ghost is not truly in man. But where 
the Holy Ghost is truly with His presence, He judges by that 
same man where it is necessary ; and then that man waits for the 
hour and occasion when it is fitting to punish. This must not be 
done so as, before one heals one wound, to inflict three or four vio- 
lently. One should not even punish a man with hard words, but 
friendly and kindly. One should not crush a man, nor lower 
him in any other man’s heart, be he civil or spiritual; but it should 
come out of a pure love, friendship, and gentleness. Herewith a 
man abides within himself, in humility and poverty of spirit; and 
this he then bears within him wherever he goes and whatever he 
does, whether amid a congregation or alone. And herewith he 
profits no one else but himself, in a true simplicity, and lets all 
such things lie as do not concern him, and are not committed to 
him.” 

Luther, as usual, exemplifies the conviction of judgment by a 
- reference to his own times, and finds it a source of inexhaustible 
comfort and strength. “Christ does not speak here of a worldly 
judgment, as the world judges in its own matters, which relate to 
body and goods, lands and persons; but this is a spiritual judg- 


ment, which pertains to the government of souls and consciences. 


It follows plainly from what went before. For where righteous- 
ness comes, there judgment must be held; since righteousness has 
two works, help and punishment. By help the innocent are saved 


ee 


NOTE Y. 467 


and maintained; by punishment the wicked and wrong-doers are 
hindered and cheeked. Therefore, as the world is rebuked for that 
righteousness which holds good before God, for that it has not this 
righteousness, and will not accept it, but sets up another righteous- 
ness of its own; in like manner is it to be rebuked for judgment, 
because it takes upon itself to punish and condemn in matters 
which it does not understand, and in which it has no right or au- 
thority to punish. For here it lifts itself up, when such things are 
preached and taught through the reproof of the Holy Spirit, as, 
that all men are under sin, and that without Christ there is no 
counsel or help against sin, and no righteousness before God ex- 
cept in Christ. This the world cannot and will not brook or hear, 
but begins to condemn this sermon, and to persecute all who cleave 
to it and confess it, and claims a right and authority for such judg- 
ment or condemnation and punishment, as though exercising it in 
God’s name, and all the while bears the name-of the Christian 
Church. For here the world chooses to be Master Clever, and 
Satan to be God Himself; and they presume to declare and decide 
what is right or wrong, punishable or acceptable, in divine things. 
For it sets to and condemns the sermon of the Apostles and of the 
Gospel, and all who abide thereby, to the bottomless pit; and this 
it does by its highest regular power, right, and authority, which 
are given to it by God to punish the wicked. ‘This it uses against 
God and His Christians, to destroy the preaching of the Gospel 
therewith. Thus the two judgments run counter to each other, 
in that the Holy Ghost by His sermon jydges and rebukes the 
world; but the world sets itself in opposition, will not hear nor 
bear this, claims judgment for itself, says, this is not God’s but the 
Devil’s sermon and doctrine, so that it has not only a fair plea not 
to accept them, but is also bound te condemn them, to prevent, 
and to root them out, through its judicial power, that is, for the 
sake of God and of righteousness. 

“ Well then, we must let these two judgments, that of God, and 
that of the world, and of its Prince, the Devil, run and clash 
against each other; and we must wait and expect, and for God’s 
and His word’s sake must endure, that they should condemn us, 
persecute us, and, when they can, slay and murder us, in the ser- 
vice of their God. But in so doing we have the comfort, where- 
with the Lord Christ has beforehand provided and armed us, as 
indeed we greatly need, — else would it be too hard for us to bear 


468 NOTE Y. 


this judgment and condemnation, — in that He promises, not only 
that the Holy Ghost, by our means, shall rebuke the world on 
account of sin and righteousness, and also of judgment, but more- 
over shall uphold those who are His therein, and shall give effect 
to their judgment and rebuke against the opposite judgment and 
condemnation ; so that in the end His judgment shall stand, 

“This is what He means, when He says that the Prince of this 
world is judged. Here, in the first place, we are told and assured, 
that this judgment and condemnation of the world is not the 
judgment and sentence of God, or of Christ’s Church, as the world 
gives out, and would have us believe, but is the Devil’s judgment, 
and is already condemned by God; and we too are to count it 
eroundless and condemned, and not to care for it, nor to follow or 
obey this judgment of the world, but may cheerfully let ourselves _ 
be condemned, and set this judgment or condemnation there- 
against, that Christ pronounces the world with its Prince to be 
condemned. 

“This I say, because nowadays certain scatterbrains and popish 
dunces, now that they are forced to confess that our doctrine is 
right and scriptural, yet splutter against it, and cry that, because 
it has not been confirmed by councils, and because the govern- 
ment has not adopted, or rejects it, that doctrine is nothing worth ; 
for that one must obey the government, and he who opposes it is 
seditious; and so forth. Nay, they would so arrange matters, 
that the government and men shall be set as judges over God’s 
word; and we are to be free and blameless, so that we need not 
accept or confess it, if the government does not choose. Scripture 
however says, not the world, the prince, or emperor, but the Holy _ 
Ghost is to be judge by the word. But the world must let itself 
be rebuked and judged, and must give heed to this judgment. 
And if the world opposes it, and would itself judge God’s word, 
and condemn and command us to hold with it, we are to know 
that this judgment is condemned, and is the devil’s, and that we 
are to resist it,as being condemned by God, and to say, Dear — 
Prince, Emperor, and World, I am indeed under thy power with my — 
body.and goods; and as to what thou shalt ordain concerning my 
body and goods, I must and will readily obey: but if thou stretchest 
out further into God’s government, where thou mayest not, nor eanst 
be judge, but must let thyself be judged, along with me and all erea- 
tures, by His word, there I must and will not follow thee, but do the 


NOTE Y. 469 


contrary, that I may obey Him, and abide by His word. For if I 
were to obey thee, I should condemn myself, along with thee, by 
God’s word ; because Christ here concluded and says, What the 
prince of this world judges concerning God’s word is already con- 
demned. 

“In the next place, He also gives us the comfort that the Holy 
Ghost with His judgment shall prevail and make way against the 
world’s judgment and condemnation, in order that we may not be 
dismayed at the power of the world and the devil, and their angry 
threats and terrors. For Christ here speaks very grandly and 
boldly. Not only, He says, shall all emperors, kings, princes, or - 
others, who rage against God’s word, be condemned along with their 
Judgment ; but the prince of this world himself, who-has more might 
and strength in his little finger than all the world together. And 
the Gospel shall not only be judge over flesh and blood, nay, not 
only over some of Satan’s angels or devils, but over the prince him- 
self, who has the whole world mightily in his hands, and is the all- 
wisest, mightiest, and thereto the all-fiercest enemy of God and His 
Christians, so that every thing which is great, mighty, and wicked 
among men is nothing in comparison with him. Moreover, by His 
word not only is the world’s highest understanding, wisdom, and 
power condemned, but also the wisdom and power which the: 
Prince of this world himself has and wields. Nay, He says, there: 
is no need of any further judgment or knowledge: he is already 

condemned. So that the judgment of Christians, who have God’s: 
word, and judge accordingly, shall stand and gain ground against 
him, until at last he is utterly overthrown. For this judgment 
against him is already won and confirmed: nay, he has long since 
been cast out, and is imprisoned and held in chains and bonds 
unto condemnation; nor is any thing wanting, except that this 
judgment and condemnation be made ae ed finally accom- 
plished before all the world; so that, being cast down forever to 
hell with all his members, he shall ng more ‘be able to assail God’s 
word and Christendom. Therefore it behoves us not to dread or 

_ care for their judgment and condemnation, because we hear that 
it shall not harm us, but is already powerless, being condemned 

‘by God’s contrary judgment, so that they shall not work or effect 
any thing against us, however fiercely they rage against us with 
their condemnation, persecution, and murder, but must finally 
and forever remain under condemnation, which is passed against 

40 


470 NOTE Y. 


them both by God, and by us who judge after and by His word. 
And Christendom shall maintain the supreme judgment, and shall 
abide, as it has done hitherto, in despite of the Devil and the 
world.” 

Calvin takes ZOLOLS to mean, not the judgment upon evil, but 
the establishment of a right order; although the declaration that 
judgment has passed on the Prince of this world, as he himself 
observes, favors the ordinary interpretation. .“ Those who take 
the word judgment to mean condemnation, do so not without rea- 
son; for Christ soon subjected the Prince of this world to con- 
demnation. Still it seems to me that a different sense is more in 
keeping, viz.: that by the kindled light of the Gospel and the 
victory of Christ whereby He overthrew the kingdom of Satan, 
the Spirit shows the condition of the world to have been estab- 
lished in accordance with right and order: as if He had said, this 
is the true restoration whereby all things are reformed, when 
Christ Himself, by victory over Satan, obtains the entire sway. 
Judgment therefore is opposed to a confused and disorderly state 
of things. — The idea is, that while Satan holds the power, he 
embroils and disarranges every thing, that the disorder of the works 
of God may be hideous and diseusting; but when he is ejected 
from his tyranny by Christ, then the world, being restored, well- 
adjusted order shines forth. Thus the Spirit convinces the world 
of judgment, that is, that Christ, (the prince of iniquity having been 
conquered), has restored to order those things which were scat- 
tered and in ruins.” Doubtless the condemnation of evil implies 
the confirmation of that which is good; but since the second 
clause declare’ that judgment has been executed on the Prince of 
this world, it is better to understand the same word in the same 
sense in the first clause. 

Beza renders ~g/oug in the subjective sense of judgment, so as 
that the world is to be convinced of having judged erroneously. 
“ Lastly the world is convinced of judgment, i. e. it is brought to 
know that I, whom it despised as a carpenter’s son, am indeed the 
Son of God, who, the pains of death being loosed, will then be 
exalted to the right hand of God. Because, said He, the Prince 
of this world is judged: i. e. because by this very fact they shall 
understand and know, that I exercise dominion in the world, the 
devil being overcome, when they shall see that they all oppose 
you in vain, since I shall arm you with that celestial might, by 


i 
NOTE Y. A71 


which ye shall destroy every high thing that exalts itself against 
the will of God, and shall lead every thought into the captivity 
of obedience to Me.” Among the many objections to this inter- 
pretation, judgment in the first clause is taken in a different sense 
from that of the verb judging in the second. Besides it would be 
a sorry anticlimax, after the conviction of sin and of righteous- 
ness, to add what is implied in both the former, and much less 
important than either of them: and too much stress is laid on the 
miraculous-works of the Apostles, as evincing that the Prince of 
this world had been judged; while the great act by which that 
judgment is accomplished is left out of sight. The first of these 
objections applies also to Beza’s second interpretation: the 
world “in fine shall be reproved of judgment, because it denies 
and opposes Him, to whom is committed all power m heaven and 
earth ; since it rejects Him who bore our sin, who, now reigning, 
justifies us by His own righteousness, who in fine has overcome 
the devil.” In Beza’s third interpretation, —“Of the judgment, 
finally, which from the Apostolic teaching and its efficacy, they 
were made to know, is prepared for unbelievers, and is already to 
some extent exhibited in Satan their prince,” — xg/oug is taken 
in the right sense; but the rest is vague and unsatisfactory. 

Cartwright has better seized the meaning and force of the Com- 
forter’s third conviction. “Finally He will reprove the world of 
the judgment and power delivered to Him in heaven and earth, 
so that He, who was considered the meanest of all, will prove to 
be a most glorious prince. In which work the Apostles also 
wrought diligently in the Acts. Of this fact He adduces a power- 
ful argument from the effects which follow, because the prince of 
this world is judged, put to flight and conquered, power over death 
and sin among believers is secured to Him, and every obstacle 
which can oppose our salvation is removed: so that, freed from 
our enemies, we may serve Him in holiness and righteousness all 
the days of our life. Which first fact possesses a peculiar con- 
soling power: that all, or the most powerful enemies of the church 
have been vanquished and put to rout. Then the admonition that 
we should examine whether we have put on the righteousness of 
Christ: for if this is so, it follows that we are in Christ’s power, 
freed from the tyranny of sin, to labor and strive earnestly after 
piety and holiness.” 

Lightfoot, as usual, is sensible and intelligent, in addition to his 


si 
472 NOTE Y. 


vast learning. ‘“ That the devil was judged is well known, since 
the Saviour conquered him by the obedience of His death. (Heb. 
ii. 14.) And the first.indication of this judgment and victory was, 
when Christ rose from the dead: the next, when He freed the 
Gentiles from the bondage of Satan by means of the Gospel, and 
consigned him to chains, as mentioned in Rev. xx. 1, 2, which pas- 
sage is the best comment upon these words. Both clearly prove 
that Christ will judge the whole world, viz.: all in it who do not 
believe, since now He has judged the prince of the world. And 
here you will call to mind the opinion of the Jews respecting the 
Judgment under the Messiah: it was, that He would not judge 
Israel at all, but the Gentiles only: indeed the Jews were to judge 
the Gentiles, rather than to be themselves judged. But He who 
has judged the Prince of this world, the author of unbelief, will 
also judge all unbelievers.” 

Hammond, on the other hand, is as meagre asever. “ Thirdly, 
He shall urge and work revenge upon Satan and his instruments, 
who crucified Me, and retaliate destruction back upon them.” It 
is really surprising how so good a man should have had such a dim 
apprehension of Christian truth, as he perpetually evinces in his 
Paraphrase and Notes. From the fear of getting out of depth, he 
wades about knee-deep in the sand. 

Donne follows Calvin in understanding x@/ovg as primarily 
meaning order, but takes no account of the light thrown on the ob- 
ject of the Comforter’s conviction by the declaration upon whom 
it had actually been exercised. Thus neglecting the clue which 
might have kept him right, he wanders through a maze of his own 
luxuriant fancies. “ After those two convictions of the world, — 
that they are all under sin, and so in a state of condemnation ; 
and secondly that there is no righteousness, no justification to be 
had to the Jew by the law, nor to the Gentile by nature, but that 
there is righteousness and justification enough for all the world, 
Jew and Gentile, in Christ; in the third place the Holy Ghost is 
to reprove, that is still, to convince the world, to acquaint the 
world with this mystery, that there is a means settled to convey 
this righteousness of Christ upon the world, and then an account 
to be taken of them who do not lay hold upén this means ; for both 
these are intended in this word Judgment. He shall reprove them, 
prove to them this double signification of judgment; first, that 
there is a judgment of order, of rectitude, of government, to which 


NOTE Y. | 473 


purpose He hath established the Church: and then a judgment of 

account, and of sentence and beatification upon them who did, and 

malediction upon them who did not apply themselves to the first 

judgment, that is, to those orderly ways and means of embracing 

Christ’s righteousness, which were offered them in the Church. 

God hath ordered all things in measure and number and weight: 

Let all things be done decently and in order ; for God is the God of 
order. — And this order is this judgment; the court, the tribunal, 

the judement-seat, in which all men’s consciences and actions — 
must be regulated and ordered, the Church. — 

“The order and judgment we speak of is an order, a judgment- 
seat established, by which every man, howsoever oppressed with 
the burden of sin, may, in the application of the promises of the 
Gospel by the ordinance of preaching, and in the seals thereof in 
the participation of the sacraments, be assured that he hath re- 
ceived his absolution, his remission, his pardon, and is restored to 
the innocency of his baptism, nay, to the integrity which Adam 
had before the Fall, nay, to the righteousness of Christ Jesus Him- 
self. — And this power of remission of sins is that order and that 
judgment which Christ Himself calls by the name of the most or- 
derly frame in this or the next world, a kingdom.— The Holy 
Ghost reproves thee, convinces thee, of judgment, that is, offers 
thee the knowledge that such a Church there is, a Jordan to wash 
thine original leprosy in baptism, a city upon a mountain to en- 
lighten thee in the works of darkness, a continual application of 
all that Christ Jesus said and did and suffered to thee.— And 
make that benefit of this reproof, this conviction of the Holy 
Ghost, that He convinces thee de judicio, assures thee of an orderly 
Church established for thy relief, and that the application of thy- 
self to this judgment, the Church, shall enable thee to stand up- 
right in that other judgment, the last judgment; which is also 
enwrapped in the signification of this word of our text. — 

“ As God began all with judgment; for He made all things in 
measure, number, and weight ;—-as He proceeded with judgment 
in erecting a judicial seat for our direction and correction, the 
Church; so He shall end all with judgment, the final and general 
judgment at the reswrrection.— But was this work left for the 
Holy Ghost? Did not the natural man, that knew no Holy Ghost, 
know this? Truly, all their fabulous divinity, all their mythology, 
their Minos and their Rhadamanthus, tasted of such a notion as a 

AQ * 


474 NOTE Y.- 


judgment. And yet the first planters of the Christian religion 
found it hardest to fix this root of all other articles, that Christ 
should come again to judgment. — But to say the truth, and all the 
truth, howsoever the Gentiles had some glimmering of a judgement, 
that is, an account to be made of our actions after this life, yet of 
this judgment which we speak of now, which is a general judg- 
ment of all together, and that judgment to be executed by Christ, 
and to be accompanied with a resurrection of the body,— of this 
the Gentiles had no intimation: this was left wholly for the Holy 
Ghost to manifest. And of this, all the world hath received a full 
convincing from Him; because He hath delivered to the world 
those Scriptures which do so abundantly, so irrefragably establish 
it.” 

His conclusion is grand. After speaking of the terrors of the 
Last Judgment, he adds, “ Who can think of this, and not be tum- 
bled into desperation? But who can think of it twice, maturely, 
and by the Holy Ghost, and not find comfort in it, when the same 
light that shows me the judgment, shows me the J udge too? _Know- 
ing therefore the terrors of the Lord, we persuade men, but know- 
ing the comforts too we importune men, to this consideration, that, 
as God precedes with judgment in this world, to give the issue with 
the temptation, and competent strength with the affliction, as the 
wise man expresses it, that God punishes His enemies with delib- 
eration and requesting (as our former translation had it), and then 
with how great circumspection will He j udge His children; so He 
gives us a holy hope, that, as He hath accepted us in this first 
jadgment, the Church, and made us partakers of the word and 
sacraments there, so He will bring us with comfort to that place, 
which no tongue but the tongue of St. Paul, and that moved by 
the Holy Ghost, could describe, and which he does describe so 
gloriously and so pathetically: You are come to Mount Sion, and 
to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an in- 
numerable company of angels, to the general assembly and Church 
of the first-born who are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of 
all, and to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant, and to the blood 
of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.” 

Bossuet’s Meditation on our verse is rhetorical, vague, and 
empty, and has that air of unreality, not to say untruth, which so 
often characterizes French eloquence. Indeed the denunciation 
of the world is just what one might expect from a declaimer living 


oe ee ee ne. ae 


es 


NOTE Y. 475 


in the midst of the Court of Louis the Fourteenth. “ Jesus Christ 
has said above: Now is the judgment of this world: now is the 
prince of this world cast out. Tow is it that Jesus Christ judged 
the world at the time of His passion? It was in permitting Him- 
self to be judged, and making them see by the unjust judgment of 
the world upon Jesus Christ, that all its judgments are void. The 
Tfoly Spirit which has come down, confirms this judgment against 
the world. What has the judgment of the world upon Jesus 
Christ effected ? nothing else but a demonstration of its own ini- 

quity. The doctrine of Jesus Christ, that men should believe 
being humbled by the cross, is exalted more than ever, heaven 
declares for it: and in default of the Jews the Gentiles have come 
to receive it, and to compose the chosen people. It is the work 
of the Holy Spirit, who descending in the form of a tongue, dis- 
plays the eflicacy of the Apostolic preaching. All nations hear 
it: of all languages He has made one, to prove that the Gospel 
unites all. The prince of this world is judged: all nations have 
agreed to his condemnation. Let us judge the world; let us con- 
demn the world. The authority which it has assumed of tyran- 
nizing over us by its maxims and customs, has led to a condemna- 
tion of the truth itself in the person of Jesus Christ. O world! 
I detest thee! the Holy Spirit has convicted thee of falsehood. 
Let us not cling to any portion of the world; its cause is wholly 
bad. — Now it is by this that the world is judged. The life which 
the Holy Spirit inspires in believers, condemns all its maxims. 
There was no more avarice, when each one carried his goods to 
the Apostles’ feet: there were no more divisions, no jealousies, 
when there was only one heart and one mind: there was no more 
of sensual pleasure, when one would rejoice to be scourged for the 
love of Jesus Christ: there was no more pride, when every thing 
was submitted to the leaders of the church, whom they regarded 
as masters of all their desires and of themselves even more than of 
their wealth. Let us then commence this Christian and apostolic 
life, and let us convince by the Holy Spirit.” The rule for the 
extinction of pride in the last sentence but one is curious. Bos- 
suet seems to have forgotten that the Apostles themselves were hia- 
ble to that vice, and how anxiously their Divine Master warns 
them against it, how the example which He set before them for the 
guidance of their lives was that of the Son of man, who came not 
to be ministered to, but to minister. ‘This is one of the primary fal- 


476 NOTE Y. 


lacies in the Romish view of the Church, proceeding upon a kind 
of assumption that they who enter the ministry, do thereby ac- 
quire a sort of immunity from the ordinary sinfulness of mankind. 
That such an assumption is utterly baseless, has been too plainly 
proved by the miserable experience of eighteen centuries. For, 
though there are certain sins to which the clergy are in some mea- 
sure less exposed, and consequently less prone, their peculiar con- 
dition has given birth to new forms of sin espécially belonging to 
it; among which are new shades and modifications of pride: and 
even if this assumption were not thus groundless, the system built 
upon it would be most injurious, no less to the Clergy, to whom 
this submission is to be paid, than to the Laity, whose Christian 
life under it ceases to be a reasonable service, and is never allowed 
to emancipate itself from the swathing bands of rules and ordi- 
nances. Moreover, though the advocates of such a system are apt 
to boast of the manner in which it recognizes and inculcates the 
great Christian duties of submission and self-sacrifice, yet in fact 
this recognition is merely partial, stopping short at the outward 
act, the act of submission to a visible superior, the act of giving up 
outward possessions: and these acts, when they are performed ac- 
cording to prescribed modes, in deference to authority, are far 
from implying the spiritual realities, which alone can give them 
true worth, and which strengthen and elevate the character of the 
agent, while formal acts enfeeble and dwarf it. 

Lampe, as he is wont, is clear and full, though he has too much 
of that logical formalism which marks the Calvinistic school of the- 
ology. “ Of judgment, He adds, which even in other times by the 
prophets, was very frequently associated with the righteousness of 
Christ and his reign, Ps. Ixxxix. 14, xevii. 2, etc. — This judg- 
ment is a part of the reign of Christ, and is begun in this life, 
when not only a verdict of acquittal is pronounced upon the elect 
through the righteousness of Christ to quiet their consciences, but 
also a law of faith and holiness is prescribed, usually and fitly call- 
‘ed the judgments of the Lord, which when they neglect, they are 
punished, but when they fulfil, they enjoy the favor of their joy- 
ful Master; while on the other hand the enemies of righteousness 
and of Christ’s kingdom are subjected to punishments sent upon 
them, and are cut off. Itis completed moreover in the future life, 
where all must stand before the tribunal of Christ. They are con- 
vinced of this judgment, therefore, to whom it is shown that Christ 


NOTE Y. 477 


really occupied His kingdom after His obedience was complete, 
and thus whoever in the world wishes to be saved, ought to look 
and flee to Christ, and yield himself to Him. (Ps. ii. 12.) The 
Scriptures mention a threefold judgment against Satan, the first 
in Paradise, the next in the passion and death of Christ, the third 
at the end of the world. Here he refers to the second, consisting 
in this, that when eternal righteousness was procured by the 
obedience of Christ, not only the pretended right of Satan in Christ 
and the elect was fully pronounced against at the bar of God, 
but even his sentence of condemnation was confirmed. ‘This 
judgment the Son demands from the Father. Zech. iii. 2. Thus 
the devil having the powér of death is destroyed. Heb. it. 14. 
These are the chains with which he is bound, not only that he 
may no more injure the elect, but also that he may be reserved 
unto punishment. Matt. xii. 29, Jude 6. This judgment to be 
sure is impending, yet the Saviour speaks of it in the perfect 
tense, as if it were already accomplished, as well because it was 
at the door, as because He refers to the time of the outpouring 
of the Holy Spirit, who convincing the world, was about to 
publish this judgment as if it were already administered.” 

By some of the German rationalists, who were offended, both 
by the mention of the Spirit of Evil in this passage, and by 
the condemnation of the world implied in his being called its 
Prince, explanations to evade these objections were devised. 
Wetstein having already said in his note, “He shall judge the 
unjust judge. Pilate will be tortured by the consciousness of 
admitted crime, and will be removed from office: the devil in- 
deed, from whom every sin originated, shall be put out of His 
kingdom, the darkness of ignorance and idolatry everywhere on 
earth being dispelled by the light of the Gospel;” it was suggest- 
ed by some that the Prince of this world in our passage must be 
Pilate, and that what Wetstein had instanced as an example of the 
judgment to be executed by the conviction of the Comforter, was 
in fact its consummation. Bolten for Pilate substituted the San- 
hedrim, “whose cause the Spirit of God was to prove to be bad 
in the sight of the Jews, by means of the Apostles whom He in- 
spired and enabled to work miracles.” But even J. E. E. 
Schmidt, in his Bibliothek fiir Kritik und Exegese des Neuen Tes- 
taments (11. 327), objected that “ Jesus does not speak here merely 
of His controversy with the Jews, but generally of his con- 


478 - NOTE Y. 


troversy with all the opposers of His purpose. To the Founder 
of the kingdom of light the natural antagonist is the Prince . 
of the kingdom of darkness, the kingdom then subsisting in 
the world. — Jesus may indeed have referred at the same time 
to His controversy with the Sandehrim ; for this opposition to His 
purpose might also be regarded as a work of the devil; because it 
resisted the establishment of the kingdom of light, and pro- 
moted the continuance of the kingdom of darkness.” Yet Titt- 
mann, both here and in x1. 31, interprets 70 aoyovra TOU 
“~00M0V TOUTOU to mean, “ All those who, not only among the Gen- 
tiles, but especially among the Jews, had power and opportunity 
to hinder the spread of the Gospel; viz. the Jewish Princes, the 
Pharisees, Lawyers, and Priests. But this caywv tov xoomov 
rovroU was condemned xéxgerat, inasmuch as his violence and 
streneth were broken and diminished, and thus his hatred, deeds, 
and designs rendered vain and useless. And this was done by 
the Holy Spirit,.through the ministry of the Apostles, while they 
taught that Jesus was the only true Messiah, that the Mosaic 
economy was at an end, that there was no more need of rites pre- 
scribed by the law, that faith in Jesus Christ was the only way of 
obtaining salvation. And thus, although the Prince of this world 
resisted, still the Gospel of Jesus Christ was proclaimed every- 
where, in Jerusalem, in Palestine, throughout the world, and His 
kingdom extended; nay, in its turn, the vigor and strength of 
Jewish malignity was crushed, especially in the destruction of the 
temple and the overthrow of the Jewish state.” This interpreta- 
tion falls short of the true meaning of the passage, inasmuch as it 
looks at little but the outward conflict which the Gospel had to 
wage, without taking sufficient account of the spiritual conflict 
against the power of evil, or of the dominion exercised by that 
power in the world. Rosenmiiller is better here: ‘ The Devil is 
meant, who, God being as it were shut out, has required and exer- 
cised his tyranny among Gentiles and Jews, leading them captive 
into every form of sin and ruin. His power and dominion is said 
to be overthrown, as often as by the preached truth, or received 
instruction of Christ, men were delivered from his power, or from 
the bondage of error and impiety. When Jews were converted 
from Judaism, and Pagans from idolatry, then they confessed that 
Satan was condemned and his strength broken.” 

Here, as elsewhere, the views of the more recent German com- 


NOTE Y. 479 


mentators, at least of the better part of them, come much nearer 
the truth. Luecke says, “In the first two convictions to be 
wrought by the Comforter, Jesus implies that the world may and 
is destined to acquire an insight into His righteousness, and into 
the erroneousness of its own unbelief. Meanwhile the world, so 
long as it does not believe, is swayed by the power of the devil. 
This leads to the third é2eyyog, with which the Spirit’s office of 
convincing closes. Every moral process closes with a zolocg. 
The primary foundation and root of the world’s resistance is the 
aoymy tov x0OKOU TOULOV. As long as he has‘power over the 
world, it resists the Gospel. But his power lasts so long as he is 
not known in his state of condemnation. The world in its dark- 
hess cannot recognize this. Dwelling in the midst of shadowy 
unrealities, it is deceived by evil under the guise of good and right. 
Hence the delusion, the error of the world, spoken of in v. 2, its 
servility, its frantic hatred of the Gospel. But in proportion as 
the true light, the Spirit, gains way in the world, good and evil are 
separated: the latter loses its speciousness, and therewith its power 
over the world: comp. m1. 18-21. The Prince of the world ap- 
pears in his nakedness, and consequently in his condemnation, and 
in his impotence: xu. 81. Thus the world, so far as it receives 
this conviction, is set free by the éleyyog of the Spirit from its 
delusion and its hatred of the truth; but so far as it resists the first 
and second éeyyog, it is judged, that is, condemned, along with 
its Prince. One may term this triple edeyyo¢ of the Spirit, which 
is continually going on in the world, the summary of the universal 
History of the Kingdom of God and Christ.” 

Tholuck’s explanation, in his Notes here and on x11. 31, is to 
the same effect. “ The meaning of our Lord’s words is, When the 
divine principle of the Spirit that will spread among My disciples, 
shall produce these extraordinary effects in mankind, people will 
be forced to confess that the power of the evil Spirit, which op- 
poses Me in the ungodly feelings of men, is broken. As by the 
incarnation and coming of the Saviour an inward judgement was 
commenced in the hearts of men (see c. 111. 18), of which the Last 
Judgement is only the outward manifestation; in like manner an 
inward judgment upon the evil Spirit was then commenced, which 
is to end in the outward manifestation of his casting out at the 
Last Judgment: Rey. xx. 14, 1 Cor. xv. 26. The ordinary sig- 


A80 NOTE Y. 


nification of the verb xglvéty is very appropriate in this place. 
When God judges evil objectively, His judgment must be a sen- 
tence of condemnation: but that which God casts out objectively 
must have its power overthrown subjectively, that 1s, 1m the world. 
—JIn that Christ appeared in the world, in that He fulfilled the 
most perfect obedience by His closing sufferings and death (Hebr. 
y. 8), in that He rose glorified from the dead, He broke down the 
power of evil; the Kingdom of God advanced mightily; and 
God’s condemnation of evil was carried into effect. Christ sees 
Satan fall like lightning from ‘heaven. For if the power of the 
kingdom of evil was overthrown by that great act of redemption, 
the power of Satan, thé ruler over that kingdom, was also over- 
thrown thereby.” 

The purpose of this conviction is well expressed in Olshausen’s 
note on x11. 31. “The destruction of evil is the necessary conse- 
quence of the triumph of good, which alone can render it possible. 
The casting out of Satan (and of his angels with him) from heaven 
(Luke x. 18, Rev. xii. 7), necessarily implied the previous exalta- 
tion of Christ, and of His saints with Him, from earth to heaven. 
The judgment, as being the expulsion of evil from the great com- 
munion of the life of the universe, is not to be conceived as merely 
concentrated at the end of the world, but is continually going on 
through the whole of history, manifesting itself more plainly at 
certain moments, when good comes forward effectively in fuller 
power. When the disciples, through the powers of a higher world, 
drove out evil spirits that had been*holding sons of Abraham in 
bondage, our Lord therein saw the fall of Satan from his throne 
(Luke x. 18); and when the Gentiles came pressing into the king- 
dom of God, He declared that Satan was wholly cast out. The 
partition-wall of the Law, which sin had rendered necessary be- 
tween the Jews and the Gentiles, was removed by the power of 
Truth: instead of separation, came the union of all: Eph. ii. 14.” 

I cannot wind up this Note better than with Stier’s on this third 


branch of the conviction to be wrought by the Comforter. He 
begins with a reference to the rationalist deniers of the personality ~ 


of the Spirit of Evil. “ Even the Holy Ghost, — though He was 


to make an end of all manner of accommodation, to strip off all 


Jewish coloring, — does not cease, but commences anew, to teach 
us the existence of a Devil: so that this must needs belong to 
some fundamental article of saving truth, without which what sin 


1 
| 


NOTE Y% 481 


and what righteousness is, especially what is the atonement where- 
by Jesus procures the righteousness of sinners, cannot be thorough- 
ly understood. He who knows Jesus, and then looks at the unbe- 
lief of the world, will, under the illumination of the Spirit, find no 
adequate solution for this, except in what we learn from 2 Cor. iv. 
4. — How the judgment of the Prince of this world (c. xii. 31) is 
here connected with the whole process as its conclusion, after all 
that has been said it will not be difficult to perceive. The enemy of 
God, the cause of all sin and unrighteousness, who deludes the 
world into unbelief, loses his action utterly in his contest against 
the Saviour; and therefore it is gained for the world, over which 
he has no longer any right or power. In this judgment the victory: 
of righteousness over sin is completed. It is a judgment wherein 
the cause of our salvation is decided, if we but will it. To testify 
this to the world is the consummation and end of the preaching of 
the Holy Spirit, whose conviction is either received by us for our 
comfort and strength, or, in an opposite case, turns into an an- 
nouncement of Judgment. 

“ The ground of that future J udgment, toward which the world. 
is advancing under the parting testimony of the Holy Ghost, lies 
in that judgment which has already been accomplished by Christ’s 
going to the Father, and which the Holy Ghost sets before us. In. 
consequence of Christ’s reconciliation, there is no longer any hu- 
man hell, but only His heaven for those who believe in Him unto. 
righteousness, or Satan’s hell for all who continue of the world. 
The é4eyyoe of the Spirit completes this separation in such Wise,, 
that on each side three classes of men must become manifest : 
among those who receive that ¢leyyoc, the penitent, who confess 
their sin, the believers, who are Justified in Christ, the saints, who 
are delivered from the power of Satan in perfecting their sanctifi- 
cation ;— among those who continue to reject it, obstinate sinners, 
unbelievers, the judged. Observe the double meaning of this last 
proposition: Satan is judged for our benefit, if we accept Christ’s 
righteousness: or we abide with him in the J udgment, if we con- 
tinue with the world in sin. Not’ that, as has been said, the Spirit 
here for the first,time reproves the sin of those who do not resist 
the Prince of this world, now that he is judged, and deprived’ of 
his strength: for this would be a Voregov mgoregor, whereby the 
whole Eley yo at its close would begin anew. But the reproof of 

41 


482 NOTE Z. 


sin was necessarily the first, including every thing that belonged 
thereto: whereas now, after the whole dilemma between sin and 
righteousness is clearly set forth, the Spirit finally announces the 
judgment of Satan in such a way, that He not only comforts be- 
lievers with the perfect comfort declared in Rom. viii. 33, 34, but 
also reproves unbelievers with that word of awful judgment, as a 
last sting, in their inmost hearts, Will ye then absolutely be and 
continue the devil’s? will ye be judged with him? 

“ One thing more must be mentioned, to complete these hints, 
that, inasmuch as the separation between the world and believers 
is not one effected in a moment, and a remnant of the world abides 
even in Christ’s disciples, the Holy Ghost will reprove their re- 
maining unbelief, will continually preach to them of Christ's right- 
cousness, and will continually call them to a fresh, more thorough 
decision between Him who judged and him who was judged. As, 
to those who are in total unbelief, He not only shows their life and 
deeds, but also, for instance, their sinful books and systems, bring- 
ing out the momtoy wevdos therein as peccatum and error; in 
like manner, in those who do not thoroughly believe, He reproves 
whatever does not yet proceed é% nlotems £4S miotev, every last 
remaining wevdos of their life and doctrine, as a sin against the 
truth of the Spirit, incurred through want of faith and disobedi- 
ence. O how totally different is the Judgment of the Spirit from 
that which in these days of toleration we exercise ! and yet this 
His primary Judgment is the only protocol for the last eternal 
one.” 


Note Z: p. 167. 


There is a terrific truth in Coleridge’s words, in a note on 
Taylor’s Doctrine of Repentance (Remains, 11. 802). “ Probably 
from the holiness of his own life, Taylor has but just fluttered 
about a bad habit, not fully described it. He has omitted, or 
rather described contradictorily the case of those with whom the 
objections to sin are all strengthened, the disnfal consequences 
more glaring and always present to them as an avenging fury, the 
sin loathed, detested, hated, and yet, spite of all this, nay, the 
more for all this, perpetrated. Both lust and intemperance would 


NOTE AA. A838 


furnish too many instances of these most miserable victims.” In 
the next note he returns to the same remark: “ But the most im- 
portant question is as to those vicious habits, in which there is no 
love to sin, but only a dread and recoiling from intolerable pain, 
as in the case of the miserable drunkard. I trust that these epi- 
leptic agonies are rather the punishments than the augmenters of 
his guilt.” The same truth is finely expressed in the fourteenth 
Essay in the Friend. “This is indeed the dread punishment 
attached by nature to habitual vice, that its impulses wax as its 
motives wane. No object, not even the light of a solitary taper 
in the far distance, tempts the benighted mind from before; but 
its own restlessness dogs it from behind, as with the iron goad of 
destiny.” 


Notre A A: p.170. 

Augustin, in his 52nd Tractate upon St. John, speaking on this 
passage, says: “The devil was master of the human race, and 
held them condemned criminals by the bond of sin; he reigned in 
the hearts of unbelievers; he Jed them deceived and captive to 
worship the creature, having deserted the Creator. But through 
faith in Christ, which is confirmed*by His death and resurrection, 
through His blood, which was shed for the remission of sins, 
thousands of believers are freed from the dominion of Satan, 
united to the body of Christ, and under so great a Head are 
quickened by His one Spirit as faithful members. This He calls 
judgment, this, separation, this, expulsion of the devil from his own 
redeemed ones. The Lord then declared what He knew, that 
after His passion and glorification, many people throughout the 
whole world, in whose hearts the devil was abiding, would believe ; 
and he is cast out when they renounced him by faith. But some 
one says: Was he not cast out of the hearts of the Patriarchs and 
prophets and righteous of old? He certainly was. How then is 
it said: He will now be cast out? How can we suppose, unless it 
be that what was then done in a very few men, it is said shall 
soon be performed in many and great peoples ?—~ What then, says 
one, since the devil is ejected from the hearts of believers, does 
he now tempt none of them? He does not, indeed, cease to 
tempt. But it is one thing to reign within; another to attack 


A84 NOTE AB. 


from without: for the enemy will occasionally attack even the 
best fortified city, though he does not take it. And if some of his 
weapons do reach us, the Apostle admonishes why they will not 
harm us: he reminds us of the breast-plate and shield of faith. 
And if he sometimes wounds, there is One near to heal. For as 
it is said to those fighting: These things I write unto you that ye sin 
not; so let those that are wounded hear what follows: And if any 
man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the 
Righteous: He is the Propitiation for our sins. For what do we 
pray when we say: Forgive us our debts, unless that our wounds 
may be healed ? and what else do we seek when we say: Lead us 
not into temptation, except that he, who lies in wait or contends 
from without, may not break in on either hand, may not be able 
to conquer us by any stratagem, by any valor. Whatever 
be the engines of war he may raise against us, since he holds no 
place in the heart where faith abides, he is cast out. But unless 
the Lord keep the city, he waketh in vain who keeps it. Take 
care then that you trust not in yourselves, if you would not have 
the devil who is cast out regain his place within. But God for- 
bid that we should think the devil called the prince of this world in 
such a sense as to believe him to have dominion over heaven and 
earth. But the world is a name applied to the wicked, who are 
scattered throughout the whole earth; just as house is applied to 
those by whom it is inhabited, in accordance with which we say, 
The house is good, or, The house is bad; not that we blame or 
praise the structure of walls and roofs, but the habits of good or 
bad men. So therefore it is said: The prince of this world, that 
is, the prince of all the wicked men who dwell in the world. . The 
term world is also applied to the good, who in like manner are 
scattered through the earth. Whence the Apostle says: God 
was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself; meaning those 
from whose hearts the prince of this world has been ejected.” 


Note A B: p. 182. 


I will insert an extract here from Nitzsches System of Chris- 
tian Doctrine, §§ 139,140. “The perfected Mediator of the New 
Testament first imparts His gift of eternal redemption to the souls 


NOTE AB, 485 


of men through the Holy Spirit, who takes every thing from Him: 
John xvi. 13,14. For the gaining of the: redemption (svoeces 
Autowoeme, Hebr. ix. 12) is one act; the bestowal of it upon 
individual men is a different one. The procuring of salvation 
(ta yaovo0évra uty, 1 Cor. ik 12) is different from its appro- 
priation (uéroyor, Hebr. iii. 1. vi. 4). The grace of our Lord 
Jesus Christ is distinct from the grace of the Holy Spirit. By - 
the former the whole world is reconciled, xara Ovvauer, 1 John 
li. 1, 2; by the latter an ever increasing number of individuals 19 
reconciled, zat évégystov, to God: 2 Cor. y. 20: dsOneder 
unéo Xocorov, xatadhaynte ra Osu. 

“ As the foundation of our salvation in the person of the Re- 
deemer does not act magically, but, inasmuch as its chief instru- 
ments are doctrine and testimony, in a manner consentaneous to 
the original constitution of human nature, which involves free- 
dom; in like manner, for the appropriation of salvation, it is pri- 
marily requisite that man’s free receptivity should be excited or 
called forth. This instrumentality of the word, the Church, and 
the sacraments, in the operations of grace does not preclude the 
necessity for an immediate working of God upon the heart ; and 
the initiatory act of regeneration by the Spirit, when it has actu- 
ally taken place, does not prevent the perpetual continuance of 
sunilar acts, down to a term which is never to be looked for in the 
present condition of mankind. 

“The Scholastic Theology of the middle ages could not give a 
correct view of the doctrine of the appropriation of salvation ; 
because it thought more of the ecclesiastical course of the Chris- 
tian’s life, as it was to develop itself through the instrumentality 
of the sacraments, than of the order of salvation, In so doing it 
fixed its attention chiefly on preparatory and justifying grace, 
and then again on baptism, and penance after baptism. The last 
distinction loses its significance in Protestantism ; because every 
reconversion of a man after a fresh fall is essentially similar to the 
first. The dogmatic Theology of the Reformation attended at 
first solely to the point of justification by faith, and developed this 
according to circumstances, or rather developed the idea of faith 
still further, along with those which are essentially connected with 
it, the Holy Spirit, repentance, works, love. Subsequently it took 
up the distinction of grace, preparation, and converting, and also 


41* 


A486 NOTE A B. 


sanctifying, saving, glorifying, or at least of regeneration, renova- 
tion, and so on. The Mysticism of the middle ages cared less 
about our individual appropriation of salvation, than about the 
extinction of our insulated life, or the stages of union with God ; 
and Protestants have erroneously regarded this mystical union as 


a peculiar, final state, which it cannot be, since the true mystical | 


union with God is already contained in regeneration and sanctifi- 
cation. A like error is it, when, through a misconception of the 
expressions in the Epistle to the Hebrews, a special TEAELMOLE is 
deemed to constitute the end. The school of Ernesti criticised the 
usual order with little better success than the division of Christ’s 
office; for the main distinction of justification and sanctification, 
vocation and regeneration, lies plainly in the language of Serip- 
ture. Two series, an objective and a subjective one (axon, mio- 
tt), as De Wette proposed, cannot be carried through, and do 
not help in the solution of the problem. The right division was 
introduced by Schleiermacher; though the way had been pre- 
pared for it by the older one of gratia praevenient, operating, co- 
operating, etc. The division must assuredly be psychological, not 
however so as to be grounded, according to Hollaz and Ammon, 
onthe relations of the feelings, the understanding, and the will, in 
which case nothing further is left for sanctification, but so that the 
state of the soul, or our spiritual life, is to be considered with 
reference to its mediation, principle, and development. This 
triple distinction of calling, justification, and sanctification, may 
also be viewed with reference to Christ’s triple office, as Prophet, 
Priest, and King.” * 


* As I have spoken several times with high praise of the invaluable 
work from which this passage is extracted, it seems incumbent on me to 
state that, ifany of my readers should be led thereby to look into the re- 
cently published English Translation, they will be miserably disappointed. 
A more conspicuous example of what Southey called traducing and over- 
setting a book will not readily be found. Even in the selection of the work 
for translation, little judgment was exercised. For, since it was composed 
in great measure as a manual to be expanded and expounded in a course 
of theological lectures, though it contains an almost inexhaustible fund of 
thought and learning, this is brought forward summarily and often allu- 
sively, with perpetual references to the German theological writers of the 
last hundred years, of most of whom the mere English reader will never 
have heard. Hence to such a person the very best translation would have 


; 


at ae en ee 


NOTE A OC. 487 


These historical remarks may be servicable to those who desire 
to understand the development of theological opinions, and who 
have risen above the vulgar error of supposing that all the wise 
men in all ages must have thought exactly as they themselves 
think on every subject, and that, so far as they did not, they were 
wrong. 


Nors A;C::.p.,195. 


The connection between the three parts in the Comforter’s 
threefold conviction is thus set forth by Lampe. “Nor must we 
neglect the order in which these separate steps are placed. For 
this accords precisely, not only with the plan of salvation, but with 
the method of the Spirit’s operation. With the plan of salvation: 
for in conviction of sin the holiness of the Father was manifested, 
in that of righteousness, the all-sufficiency of the Son, in that of 
judgment, the power of the Holy Spirit. With the method of the 
Holy Spirit: for He first convinces the sinner of his own sin, that 
He may excite a desire for salvation; but lest he should despair of 
this, He discloses the mystery of righteousness, and so fills him 
with hope: and lest he should abuse this hope to carnal security, 
He exhibits the whole work of judgment founded upon this 
righteousness.” 

Among Bernard’s Sentences (Vol. 1, p. 1239), one bears upon 


been useless, and almost unintelligible, except it were accompanied by a 
copious account of the writers and systems referred to; nor would such 
information, so acquired, be of any worth. But of such knowledge, as of 
every other qualification for their task, the Translators are thoroughly 
innocent. Nay, they perpetually misunderstand the commonest idioms 
and expressions of the German language; and, sitting down to render a 
writer whose style, though knotty, and obscure from it condensation, is 
full of deep and subtile thought, their chief characteristic is a felicitously 
unconscious want of meaning, not seldom making the author say the very 
contrary of what he says in his own tongue. I will not waste paper in 
citing instances of this, that having been done sufficiently by a writer in 
the Eclectic Review for December last, whose collection of blunders might 
without much trouble be centupled. But it seemed to me due to Nitzsch 
to vindicate him from the suspicion of having uttered the bewildering non- 
sense imputed to him in the Translation. It is to be regretted that the 
good intentions of the enterprising publisher, Mr. Clark, should be thus 
baifled by the incompetence of the workmen whom he has employed. 


488 NOTE AC. 


the threefold conviction wrought by the Comforter. “ ‘The Holy 
Spirit convinced the world of sin which it hides, — of righteous- 
ness which it does not ascribe to its proper source, since it assigns 
it to itself and not to God, — of judgment which it usurps, judg- 
ing with equal rashness of itself and of others.” Samson might 
have propounded it as a riddle to the Philistines to divine the logi- 
cal processes by which these expositions are elicited from the 
Scriptural text. 

Here I will insert Maldonat’s interpretation of our three verses; 
which is clever, as he always is, though it has that shallowness, 
which commonly goes along with cleverness, and which is a per- 
vading characteristic of Jesuit, as most of the Romish Post-triden- 
tine Theology. “In the expression of sin there is a twofold 
inquiry, whose and what sin is meant. It seems to be plain, that 
the sin of the world was intended; and it is so regarded without 
hesitation by every one; but besides this we shall maintain that it 
is to be understood generally, as if He should say: The Holy 
Spirit will disclose which of us is the sinner, I, or the world, which 
is accustomed to call Me a sinner. But as to what sin He means, 
there is some disagreement among interpreters. Some incline to 
believe that sin is meant which the Jews committed in crucifying ° 
Christ. — That to convince of this sin, is to compel them by con- 
clusive proofs to confess it. Others suppose sin to signify what 
they call unbelief, and that the world must be reproved of this 
very sin, because they would not believe in Christ. To me no 
particular sin seems to be intimated, but in general that sin is sig- 
nified of which, even before Christ came, the whole world was 
held guilty. Christ therefore does not teach that the Holy Spirit 
will conyince the world of any sin admitted into it after He came; 
but it will come to pass that the world, having seen the wondrous 
works of the Holy Spirit, will know that it has been bound hith- 
erto by sin of long standing, since it could not be freed from it 
except through Christ, moreover that it cannot be freed from it 
through Christ, while it does not believe in Him. And thus we can 
understand the reason which Christ subjoins: Of sin, He says, be- 
cause they believed not on Me.— For it does not mean, that on 
account of this sin it must be reproved, vizethat it did not be- 
heve on Him, but on this account must it be reproved of sin, because 
it did not believe, which is the true way of being freed from sin. 

“One doubtful point remains here, in what way the Holy Spirit 


NOTE AC. 489 


was about to declare that same thing, which we might look for in 
reference to righteousness and judgment. It was not only by 
words but by deeds, not by Himself alone but by Apostles and 
other Christians, whom He would endow with His own power. 
For it would come to pass that the world, seeing what the Apostles 
effected by the inspiration of the Spirit, that unlearned men could 
speak in every tongue, heal the sick and raise the dead, it would - 
be obliged to confess, that Christ, in whose name they had done all 
these things, was, as they declared, the true Saviour of the world, 
and that they were yet in their sins, because they had not believed 
in Him. This we see to have happened in that speech of Peter, 
during which, when Peter had taught that Christ was the only 
Saviour and had confirmed his doctrine by miracles, his hearers 
were pricked in the heart and said to Peter and the other Apos- 
tles: Men and brethren, what shall we do? 

“We now come to cOricttet the term righteousness. — There are 
those who think that the righteousness of men is meant, or at least, 
Christ’s righteousness, not that by which He is righteous, but that 
by which He makes us righteous; as if He had said, the Holy 
Spirit will teach, that the world is a sinner, but that Christ is one 
who will justify the ungodly ; or that those who believe in Him are 
justified, as the Apostles were; wherefore He said before, when 
He spoke of sin: Because they believed not on Me; He does not 
now say, Because they will not see Me, but, Because ye will see Me 
no more.— 

“I believe that Christ alluded to His own former intercourse with 
men, which was the reason why the world called Him a sinner 
hike the rest, because it saw the infirmity of His flesh; which occa- 
sion was to be taken away from it when He ascended on high, be- 
cause this would be a certain proof that He was more than a feeble 
man, that He was the powerful God, for by His own authority He 
had ascended to Heaven. That is, Because I go to the Father and 
ye sce Me no more ; ye shall now have no occasion from the sight 
of My flesh and infirmity to think diminutively of Me; for ye shall 
not see Me. — 

‘‘ Lastly we have the expression: And of judgment, because the 
prince of this world & judged. Some think this signifies the judg- 
ment of Christ, and take it in the active sense; as if He said: The 
Holy Spirit will teach the world that I am the righteous Judge of 
the living and the dead, when it shall see its own prince judged by 


490 NOTE AC. 


Me. — Others referring also to Christ, take judgment for a read- 
justed condition of things in the world and a restoration from ruin. 
The author of this was a heretic:” (we have seen that this was 
Calvin’s interpretation :) “and what kind of an opinion it may be, 
the learned reader will judge. — Others refer it to the world, but 
also take it in the active sense for that judgment of the world, by 
which it judges, not by which it is judged; in which sense we have 
just now introduced Bernard interpreting it.— Others apply it to 
the world, but positively, that the world should know its own judg- 
ment, i. e. its condemnation, when it should see itself condemned 
in the person of its prince. Thus Augustine, Beda, and Rupert; 
and this is the true sense; but it must be urged a little further. 

‘No doubt the devil is called the prince of this world, and all 
remind us of it: but they might have explained, I think, why 
Christ said that the prince of this world was condemned, rather 
than the world itself. First, because the prince was in fact already 
condemned, already conquered; the world was not condemned but 
about to be; for hitherto it was living; there was yet hope of par- 
don. Next, because it could not know that it was condemned ex- 
cept in its chief. Lastly, because it was a greater victory to con- 
quer and subdue the prince of this world, than the world itself. 
Christ therefore did what victors in war are accustomed to do; if 
the leader of the enemy has fallen, as often happens, unknown to 
his army, they show to them his head raised upon a spear, that they 
may confess themselves conquered, their commander being dead. 

“ But in what way was the world about to know this fact, that 
the devil was conquered? By seeing forthwith that he has no 
power against Christ and His disciples, that by Christ’s name he 
is expelled from men possessed by him, that forbidden by Christ’s 
power, and terrified by the mere sign of His cross, he gives no 
responses in idols.” 

He who will compare this interpretation of our text by the ablest 
of Romish expositors, with those by Luther and Stier, given in 
preceding Notes, can hardly fail to perceive how meagre and su- 
perficial the Jesuit is, in comparison with the power and depth 
and richness of the spiritual truths poured out by the two Ger- 
mans. Nor does this present an unfair measure of the worth of 
Romish, when contrasted with good Protestant Theology. It will 
be seen how shallow Maldonat’s perception of sin is, and that of 
righteousness, and that of judgment, — how he can neither discern 


NOTE AC, 491 


the sinfulness of unbelief, nor the gift of righteousness to faith, nor 
even in what way the Prince of this world is judged. Nor has he 
any discernment of the spiritual operation of the Spirit. The con- 
viction is to be wrought by outward works, by miracles. Even Pe- 
ter’s sermon is.not sufficient to act upon his hearers, except when 
“miraculis confirmavisset,” though of this as a motive there is no 
intimation in the Apostolic narrative. In this spirit the Church of _ 
Rome has been wont to lay down that the power of working mir- 
acles is an indispensable criterion of a true Church; and, rather 
than be without it, she forges lying miracles to deck herself out 
with. Thus does she give her proof that the Prince of this world 
has been judged. ‘ 

Neander, in his Life of Jesus (p. 661), states the purposes of 
the Comforter’s conviction as follows: “ Under the conflicts which 
await the disciples, Jesus promises them the help of the Holy 
Spirit. The Spirit by their means shall effect whatever is requi- 
site for the spreading of the Kingdom of God. All that is need- 
ful for this work He comprises in these words: the Holy Ghost 
shall bring the world to a consciousness of its sin, and teach it to 
recognize the ground of its unbelief therein. (Our Lord’s words 
rather mean, that the world shall recognize its unbelief to be the 
ground of itssin.) Next, He shall bring the world to a conviction 
that Christ had not died as a sinner, but had ascended as the Holy 
One to His Father in heaven, and by His death, and His subse- 
quent exaltation to heaven, had most completely manifested His 
holiness. ‘They who have attained to the consciousness of their 
sin, shall recognize Him as the Holy One, whose holiness ig the 
ground of the sanctification of all others. Thus He brings them 
gradually to the conviction that judgment has been passed upon 
Satan, who till then had reigned in the world, that evil has been 
deprived of its power, and therefore that those who have entered 
into communion with Christ, need not fear it any longer. Every 
thing is thus concentrated in these three steps, the conviction of 
sin, the conviction of the holiness of Christ, our Redeemer from 
sin, and the conviction of the impotence of evil, which had resisted 
the establishment of His Kingdom. Herein lies the whole sub- 
stance of Christianity, the conviction of sin, of Christ as the Holy 
One, the Redeemer from sin, and of the Kingdom of God, which, 
triumphing over evil, shall subdue every thing in mankind!” 


a 


492 NOTE AD. 


Note A D: p. 202. 
& 


Episcopius, in his Institutiones Theologicae (lib. ili. sect. iii. p. 
144), in an argument on the possibility of the existence of witches 
in Christian countries, contends that this is not inconsistent with 
the declaration that the Prince of this world has been judged. 
“ Very well, you will say: they are said to exist among men and 
nations profane, superstitious, and deprived of the true knowledge 
of God, as the Chinese, the natives of Guinea, of Java, and others. 
But the Saviour Himself hardly allows us to suppose that among 
Christians they can be believed to exist, since He declared of Sa- 
tan or the Prince of this world, John xvi. that he was already con- 
demned even at that time, while Christ yet lived upon the earth: 
verse 11. But I say, that in this expression Chrift does not mean 
to intimate, that Satan had already been so condemned, as either 
not to be any more in the world, or at least not to effect any thing 
in that part of the world where the religion of Christ was to pre- 
vail. For the contrary is manifest from the places above cited, 
where the spirit of Python is said to have still possessed some in 
the very places, where the Apostles had planted the religion of 
Jesus Christ, by whom it is also said he was cast out. But at the 
utmost Christ meant only this, that the demon had then been de- 
prived of authority, and so subjected to the dominion of Christ, 
that, in those who had by true faith embraced His religion, he 
would not only have no right, but would even be driven out at 
their command or their prayers; and as lightning falls from heaven 
(Luke x. 18), so suddenly would he disappear from the bodies of 
the possessed as an unlawful and condemned possessor. From 
which it follows, that Satan can indeed exercise no power upon 
those who are true Christians, and heartily recognize and cherish 
Jesus as their Lord; and what is more, those believing in Jesus 
are endowed with such power and authority by Him, that they can 
cast out demons through His name. (Mark xvi. 17.) But surely 
from this it does not follow, that in those lands where Christians 
are and live, Satan, or the demon can effect nothing ; or then, that 
those who either will not be Christians, or merely profess the reli- 
gion of Christ with the lips, while they are otherwise profane and 
wicked, may not be able to use the works of Satan for performing 
some wonders. Indeed, the contrary has no small support in those 


NOTE AD. 493 


passages where Satan is called the God of this world, that is, the 
master of those who love this world; and is said to have the power 
of blinding their eyes, 2 Cor. iv. 4, to be the prince of the power 
of the air, and a spirit endowed not only with strength but with 
efficiency (éveoyele), and using it in the children of disobedience, 
(anevPeiac,) Eph. ii. 2, anda ruler of the darkness of this world 
and spirit of wickedness in high places: Eph. vi. 12, i. e., he is a 
spirit dwelling in upper air; to whom, just after, fiery darts are at- 
tributed, v. 16, who is also said to walk about like a roaring lion 
seeking whom he may devour, 1 Pet. v. 8, namely, some one dis- 
heartened by adversity, and so renouncing the Christian religion, 
and yielding himself to the allurements of an effeminate and dis- 
solute life, or not resisting temptation with that unshaken confi- 
dence, which usually accompanies a profession of the Christian 
religion. By which we are to understand, that this demon, or 
Satan, is not said to be so condemned by Christ, as to be wholly 
banished or cast out of Christian lands, but merely so far, that al- 
though he is among Christians he can avail nothing against them, 
if they only yield not themselves willingly to him, nor give way to 
his efforts; using in other respects his ancient right and authority 
upon them, as well as all others, the worldly and profane sons of 
the earth, as if he were their lord and god, although he is re- 
strained by the divine power of Jesus Christ, and condemned to 
obey His command and nod, so that without His permission he has 
not even dominion over swine.” 


42 


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PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE ILLUSTRATED 
IN THE NOTES. 


Genesis, xviii. 25, p. 394. 
Deuteronomy, xviii. 19, p. 373. 
RAK, X kX. P25 i 

Jeremiah, xxxi. 33, p. 287. 
Matthew, x. 20, p. 338. 

Xvi. 16, p. 338. 

Xvi. 18, pp. 233, 234. 
Mark, xiii. 11, p. 338. 
Luke, xii. 12, p. 338. 
XX. 48, pp. 269-271. 
John, vil. 38, 39, pp. 265-326, 

329. 

vill. 46, p. 356. 
xii. 24, p. 251. 
xu. 31, p. 483. 
xiv. 15-17, pp. 326-338. 
xiv. 18, p. 855. 
xvi. 7, pp. 221-223, 231- 
234, 235-243, 252-260. 
xvi 8, pp. 355-375, 385- 
388. 
xvi. 9, pp. 389-415. 
—— xvi. 10, pp. 437-461. 


PITT | 


John, xvi. 11, pp. 463-482, 

xvi. 13, pp. 224-231. 

xx. 9, p. 338. 

XX. 22, p. 338. 

Acts, iv. 3, p. 378. 

Romans, viii. 1, pp. 395, 398. 
Corinthians (1), xii. 3, p. 338. 
xi. 5, pp. 255, 256. 
xiv. 16, p. 378. 

xiv. 22, pp. 378, 379. 
xiv. 24, pp. 375- 


—— 


384. 


(2); x1..6; p. 378; 
Galatians, iil. 2, pp, 288, 289. 

ill. 15, pp. 255, 288.. 

il. 17, p. 288. 

v. 20, p. 225. 
Ephesians, iv. 30, p. 255. 
Timothy (2), iv. 2, p. 356. 
Titus, i. 9, p. 385. 

Hebrews, xii. 5, p. 356. 
James, i. 27, p. 225. 
ii. 9, p. 356. 


AUTHORS CITED IN THE NOTES. 


ACKERMANN, 228, 328, 370. Bull, 286-290. 
Andrewes, 221, 237, 254-258, Bunyan, 257. 
326, 328, $44, 350, 361, 366. Byron, 424. 
Angelus Silesius, 322. 
Anselm, 243, 250, 260, 323, 392 Calvin, 235, 281, 282, 293, 334, 


~395. 353, 364, 380, 403, 446, 470. 
Apollinaris, 363. Campbell, 226, 350. 
Aquinas, 243, 276, 331, 332, 392. Carlyle, 425-432. 
Aristotle, 355. - Cartwright, 284, 403, 448, 471. 
Arnold, 461. Chrysostom, 241, 272, 362, 377. 
Athanasius, 240, 274, 333. 379, 385, 437, 463. 


Augustin, 222, 231, 232, 233, Coleridge, 225, 256, 299, 305, 
934, 238, 239, 242, 266-271, 424, 428, 429, 480, 432, 482. 
326, 833, 338, 339, 340, 352, Conradi, 321. 

353, 361, 362, 366, 391, 392, Curcellacus, 229, 258, 260. 
438, 440, 463, 464, 488. 
i Davison, 287. 


Baader, 434. Demosthenes, 355. 
Bacon, 257. - De Wette, 224, 240, 355. 
Barrow, 294. Diodati, 366. 
Baur, 250. , Donne, 365, 385, 415, 450, 451, 
Baxter, 296. 462, 472. 
Behmen, 322. 
Bengel, 239, 240. Episcopius, 492. : 
Bernard, 487. Erasmus, 224, 226, 334, 350, 
Beveridge, 296. 353, 357. 
Beza, 240, 284, 334, 353, 357, Ernesti, 351. 

365, 447, 470. : 
Bleek, 376. Fathers, (the) 228, 237, 240, 244, 
Bolten, 477. 250, 251, 256, 271, 278, 274, 


Bossuct, 243, 367, 390,453,474. 339, 340, 363, 377, 380. 


AUTHORS CITED IN THE NOTES. 


Goeschel, 414. 

Goethe, 424, 431. 

Gregory the Great, 275. 

Gregory Nazianzen, 275. 

Grotius, 254, 334, 354, 365, 372, 
373, 374, 390, 453. 

Guenther, 258, 260, 261. 


Hammond, 228, 285, 334, 365, 
374, 375, 390, 453,472. 

Heber, 301, 304, 305. 

Heinsius, 266. 

Henry (Matthew), 299, 407. 

Herodotus, 434. 

Homer, 355. 

Horsley, 303. 

Hossbach, 346. 


Irenaeus, 354. 
John of Fescamp, 323. 


Kant, 434. 

Klee, 334. 

Kling, 316. 

Knapp, 349, 351. 
Kuinoel, 310, 334, 390. 


Lachmann, 266. 

Lampe, 243, 251, 252, 308, 332, 
368, 3738, 374, 375, 388, 404, 
451, 476, 487. 

Lavington, 300, 

Lightfoot, 298, 449, 471. 

Luecke, 236, 314-318, 334, 336, 
369, 407, 437, 455, 479. 

Luther, 227, 228, 235, 256, 257, 
276, 281, 341, 353, 357, 361, 
363, 392, 396, 402, 403, 441- 
446, 466. 


497 
Lyra (Nicolaus de), 441. 


Maitland, 323. 
Maldonat, 234, 488-490. 
Marsh, 224. 
Melanchthon, 249. 
Meyer, 336. 

Middleton, 226. 

Milner, 251. 

Milton, 427. 

More (Henry), 374. 


Napier, 433, 434. 
Neander, 491. 
Newman, 306-308. 
Niebuhr, 423. 


/Nitzsch, 318, 484, 486. 


Noesselt, 309. 


Olshausen, 306, 319, 335, 370, 
377, 408, 456, 480. 
Origen, 233. 


Paulus, 233, 311, 312. 
Pearson, 294, 354. 
Perkins, 388. 

Petavius, 243, 266. 
Plato, 334, 376, 420-423. 
Pope, 304. 


Reformers, 228, 247, 257, 276, 
353, 362, 363, 371, 372, 874, 
380, 398, 402, 490. 

Romanists, 233, 234, 247, 368, 
371, 372, 374,454, 457, 489. 

Rosenmueller, 310, 478. 

Rousseau, 424. 


Schelling, 234, 422. 
Schiller, 425, 427. 


498 


Schleiermacher, 223. 
Schmidt (J. E. E.), 477. 
Scholz, 224. 

Schoolmen, 246, 332, 368. 
Scott, 226. 

Socinus, 453. 

Sophocles, 434. 

South, 291. 

Stier, 408, 456, 480. 
Stillingfleet, 291-293. 
Strauss, 415. 


Tauler, 227, 322, 340, 360, 392, 
421, 465. 

Theodore of Mopsuesta, 362. 

Theodoret, 241, 278, 377, 378. 

Theophylact, 377, 389, 437, 463. 

Tholuck, 318, 370, 466, 479. 


AUTHORS CITED IN THE NOTES. 


Thucydides, 461, 462. 

Tittmann, 314, 334, 388, 454, 
478. 

Translation of the Bible, 224, 
225, 226, 227, 240, 357, 370. 

Tyndall, 224, 225, 226, 357, 372, 
385. r F 


Walter, 224. 

Warburton, 301-304. 
Waterland, 300. 

Wesley, 226. 

Wetstein, 365, 453, 477. 
Whitby, 299. 

Wiclif, 224, 226, 351, 357, 372. 
Wilson, 296. 

Wolzogen, 375. 

Wordsworth, 424. e 


\ 
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VALUABLE WORKS 


PUB i US BD Bry 


GOULD AND LINCOLN, 


59 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON. 


SACRED RHETORIC: Or, Composition and Delivery of Sermons. 
By HENry J. RIPLEY, Prof. in Newton Theological Institution. Including Ware’s 
Hints on Extemporaneous Preaching. Second thousand. 12mo, 75 cts. 


An admirable work, clear and succint in its positions and recommendations, soundly based on good 
authority, and well supported by a variety of reading and illustrations.~ WV. Y. Literary World. 


We have looked over this work with a lively interest. The arrangement is easy and natural, and 
the selection of thoughts under each topic very happy. The work is one that will command readers. 
Ié is a comprehensive manual of great practical utility. — Phil. Ch. Chronicle. 


The author contemplates a man preparing to compose a discourse to promote the great ends of 
preaching, and unfolds to him the process through which his mind ought to pass. We commend the 
work to ministers, and to those preparing for the sacred office, as a book that will efficiently aid them 
in studying thoroughly the subject it brings before them. — Phil. Ch. Observer. 


It presents a rich variety of rules for the practical use of the clergyman, and evinces the good sense, 
the large experience, and the excellent spirit of Dr. Ripley; and the whole volume is well fitted to 
instruct and stimulate the writer of sermons. — Bibliotheca Sacra. 


An excellent work is here offered to theological students and clergymen. Itis nota compilation, 
but is an original treatise, fresh, practical, and comprehensive, and adapted to the pulpit offices of the 
present day. It is full of valuable suggestions, and abounds with clear illustrations. — Zion’s Herald. 


It cannot be too frequently perused by those whose duty it is to persuade men.-. Congregationalist. 


Prof. Ripley possesses the highest qualifications for a work of this kind. His position has given 
him great experience in the peculiar wants of theological students. — Providence Journal. 


His canons on selecting texts, stating the proposition, collecting and arranging materiais, style, de= 
livery, etc., are just and well stated. Every theological student to whom this volume is accessible 
will be likely to procure it.— Christian Mirror, Portland. 


It is manifestly the fruit of mature thought and large observation; it is pervaded. bya manly tone, 
and abounds in judicious counsels; it is compactly written and admirably arranged, both for study 
and reference. It will become a text pook for theological students, we have no dcubt: that it deserves 
to be read by all ministers is to us as clear.— NV. ¥. Recorder. 


THE CHRISTIAN WORLD UNMASKED. By Joun Berrincz, 
A. M., Vicar of Everton, Bedfordshire, Chaplain to the Right Hon. The Earl of Buchan, 
etc. New Edition. With Life of the Author, by the REV. THOMAS GUTHRIE, D. D., 
Minister of Free St. John’s, Edinburgh. 16mo, cloth. 


“The book,” says Dr. GutmrRre,in his Introduction, “ which we introduce anew to the public, 
has survived the test of years, and still stands towering above things of inferior growth like a cedar of 
Lebanon. Its subject is all important; in doctrine it is sound to the core; it glows with fervent piety ; 
it exhibits » most skilful and unsparing dissection of the dead professor; while its style is so remark- 
able, that he who could preach as Berridge has written, would hold any congregation by the ears.” 


THE CHRISTIAN REVIEW. Edited by Jawes D. Knowxes, Barnas 
SEARS, and 8S. F. SmrrH. 8 vols. Commencing with vol. one. Half cl., lettered, 8,00, 
Single volumes, (except the first,) may be had.in numbers, 1,00. 


These first eight volumes of the Christian Review contain valuable contributions from the leading 
men of the Baptist and. several other denominations, and will be found a valuable acquisition to any 
library. Aa 


« 


DR. WILLIAMS’S WORKS. 


RELIGIOUS PROGRESS; Discourses on the Development of the 
Christian Character. By WILLIAM R. WILLIAMS, D. D. Third ed. 12mo, cl., 85c. 


This work is from the pen of one of the brightest lights of the American pulpit. We scarcely know 
of any living writer who has a finer command of powerful thought and glowing, impressive language 
than he. The volume will advance, if possible, the author’s reputation. — Dr. SPRAGUE, Alb. Atlas. 


This book is arare phenomena in these days. It is a rich exposition of Scripture, with a fund of 
practical religious wisdom, conveyed in a style so strong and massive as to remind one of the English 
write-s of two centuries ago; and yet it abounds in fresh illustrations drawn from every (even the 
latest opened) field of science and of literature. — Methodist Quarterly. 


Wis power of apt and forcible illustra‘ion is without a parallel among modern writers. The mute 
pages sprig into life beneath the magic of his radiant imagination. But this is never at the expense 
of solidity of thought or strength of argument. It is seldom, indeed, that a mind of so much poetical 
invention yields such a willing homage to the logical element. — Harper’s Monthly Miscellany. 


With warm and glowing language, Dr. Williams exhibits and enforces the truth ; every page radiant 
with “thoughts that burn,” leave their indelible impression upon the mind. — WV. Y. Com. Adv, 


The strength and compactness of argumentation, the correctness and beauty of style, and the im- 
portance of the animating idea of the discourses, are worthy of the high reputation of Dr. Williams, 
and place them among the most finished homiletic productions of the day. — VV. Y. Evangelist. 


Dr. Williams has no superior among American divines in profound and exact learning, and bril- 
liancy of style. He seems familiar with the literature of the world, and lays his vast resources under 
contribution to illustrate and adorn every theme which he investigates. We wish the volume could 
be placed in every religious family in the country. — Phil. Ch. Chronicle. 


LECTURES ON THE LORD’S PRAYER. Third ed. 32mo, cl., 85c. 


“We observe the writer’s characteristic fulness and richness of language, felicity and beauty of illus- 
tration, justness of discrimination and thought. — Watchman and Reflector. 


Dr. Williams is one of the most interesting and accomplished writers in this country. We welcome 
‘this volume as a valuable contribution to our religious literature — Ch. Witness.) 


In reading, we resolved to mark the passages which we most admired, but soon found that we should 
be obliged to mark nearly all of them. — Ch. Secretary. 


It bears in every page the mark of an elegant writer and an accomplished scholar, an acute reasoner 
and a cogent moralist. Some passages are so decidedly eloquent that we instinctively find ourselves 
looking round as if upon an audience, and ready to join them with audible applause — Ch. Inquirer. 


“We are constantly reminded, in reading his eloquent pages, of the old English writers, whose vigor- 
ous thought, and gorgeous imagery, and varied learning, have made their writings an inexhaustible 
‘mine for the scholars of the present day. — Ch. Observer. as 


Their breadth of view, strength of logic, and stirring eloquence place them among the very best hom- 
‘letical efforts of the age. Every page is full of suggestion as well as eloquence. — Ch. Parlor Mag. 


MISCELLANIES. New, improved edition. (Price reduced.) 12mo, 1,25. 


«a This work, which has been heretofore published in octavo form at 1,75 per copy, is published by 
he present proprietors in one handsome 12mo volume, at the low price of 1,25. 


A volume which is absolutely necessary to the completeness ofa library.— NV. Y. Weekly Review. 
Dr. Williams is a profound scholar and a brilliant writer. — VW. Y. Evangelist. 


He often rises to the sphere of a glowing and impressive eloquence, because no other form of lan- 
guage can dojustice to his thoughts and emotions. So,too, the exuberance of literary illustration, 
with which he clothes the driest speculative discussions, is not brought in for the sake of effect, but as _ 
the natural expression of a mind teeming with the “spoils of time” and the treasures of study in al- 
most every department of learning. -- V. Y. Tribune. 


From the pen of one of the most able and accomplished authors of the age. -- Bap. Memorial. 
We are glad to see this volume. We wish such men abounded in every sect.— Ch. Register. 
One of, the richest volumes that has been given to the public for many years. — NV. Y. Bap. Reg. 
“The author’s mind is cast in no common mould. A delightful volume. — Jeth. Prot. Bb 


THE PREACHER AND THE KING; 
OR, BOURDALOUE IN THE COURT OF LOUIS XIV. 


Being an Account of that distinguished Era. Translated from the French 
of L. BUNGENER. Paris, fourteenth edition. With an Introduction, by the REY. 
GEORGE Ports, D. D., New York. 12mo, cloth, 1,25, . ! 


It combines substantial history with the highest charm of romance ; the most rigid philosophical crit- 
icism with a thorough analysis of human character and faithful representation of the spirit and man- 
ners of the age to which it relates. We regard the book as a valuable contribution to the cause not 
merely of general literature, but especially of pulpit eloquence. Its attractions are so various that 
it can hardly fail to find readers of almost every description, — Puritan Recorder. 


Avery delightful book. It is full of interest, and equally replete with sound thought and profitable 
sentiment. — V. ¥. Commercial. : 


It isa volume at once curious, instructive, and fascinating. The interviews of Bourdaloue, and 
Claude, and those of Bossuet, Fenelon, and others, are remarkably attractive, and of finished taste. 
Other high personages of France are brought in to figure in the narrative, while rhetorical rules are 
exemplified in a manner altogether new. Its extensive salein France is evidence enough of its ex- 
traordinary merit and its peculiarly attractive qualities. — Ch. Advocate. 


It is full of life and animation, and conveys a graphic idea of the state of morals and religion in the 
Augustan age of French literature. --- V. ¥. Recorder. 


This book will attract by its novelty, and prove particularly engaging to those interested in the pul- 
pit eloquence of an age characterized by the flagrant wickedness of Louis XIV. The author has ex- 
hibited singular skill in weaving into his narrative sketches of the remarkable men who flourished at 
that period, with original and striking remarks on the subject of preaching. — Presbyterian. 


Its historical and biographical portions are valuable; its comments excellent, and its effect pure and 
benignant. A work which we recommend to all, as possessing rare interest. — Buffalo Morn. Exp. 


A book of rare interest, not only for the singular ability with which it is written, but for the graphic 
account which it gives of the state of pulpit eloquence during the celebrated era of which it treats. 
It is perhaps the best biography extant of the distinguished and eloquent preacher, who above all oth- 
ers most pleased the king; while it also furnishes many interesting particulars in the lives of his pro- 
fessional contemporaries. We content ourself with warmly commending it. — Savannah Journal. 


The author is a minister of the Reformed Church, In the forms of narrative and conversations, he 
portrays the features and character of that remarkable age, and illustrates the claims and duties of the 
sacred office, and the important ends to be secured by the eloquence of the pulpit. — Phil. Ch. Obs. 


A book which unfolds to us the private conversation, the interior life and habits of study of such 
men as Claude, Bossuet, Bourdaloue, Massillon, and Bridaine, cannot but bea precious gift to the 
American church and ministers. It isa book full of historical facts of great value, sparkling with gemg 
of thought, polished scholarship, and genuine piety. — Cin. Ch. Advocate. 


This volume presents a phase of French fife with which we have never met in any other work. The 
author is a minister of the Reformed Church in Paris, where his work has been received with unex- 
ampled popularity, having already gone through fourteen editions. The writer has studied not only 
the divinity and general literature of the age of Louis XIV., but also the memories of that period, until 
he is able to reproduce a life-like picture of society at the Court of the Grand Monarch. — Alb. Trans. 


A work which we recommend to all, as possessing rare interest. — Buffalo Ev. Express. 


In form it is descriptive and dramatic, presenting the reader with animated conversations between 
some of the most famous preachers and philosophers of the Augustan age of France. The work will 
be read with interest by all intelligent men; but it will be of especial service to the ministry, who can- 
not afford to be ignorant of the facts and suggestions of this instructive volume.— V. ¥. Ch. Intel. 


The work is very fascinating, and the lesson under its spangled robe is of the gravest moment to 
every pulpit and every age. — Ch. Intelligencer. 


e 


THE PRIEST AND THE HUGUENOT;; or Persecution in the Age 
of Louis XV. Part I., A Sermon at Court; Part IL, A Sermon in the City ; Part Ith. 
A Sermon in the Desert. Translated from the French of L. BUNGENER, author of 
*“* The Preacher and the King.” 2 vols. 12mo, cloth. FP A new Work. 


ea~ This is truly amasterly production, full of interest, and may be set down as one of the greatest 
Protestant works of the age, Ff 


WORKS FOR BIBLE STUDENTS. 


A TREATISE ON BIBLICAL CRITICISMS; Exhibiting a Syste- 
matic View of that Science. By SAMUEL DAVIESON, D. D., of the University of Halle, 
Author of * Ecclesiastical Polity of the New Testament,” ‘* Introduction to the New 
Testament,” ‘‘ Sacred Hermeneutics, Developed and Applied. A new Revised and En- 
larged Edition, in two elegant octavo volumes, cloth, 5,00. 


These volumes contain a statement of the sources of criticism, such as the MSS. of the Hebrew Bi- 
ple and Greck Testament, the principal versions of both, quotations from them in early writers, par- 
allels, and also the internal evidence on which critics rely for obtaining a pure text. A history of the 
texts of the Old and New Testaments, with a description of the Hebrew and Greek languages in 
which the Scriptures are written. An examination of the most important passages whose readings 
are disputed. 

Every thing, in short, is discussed, which properly belongs to the criticism of the text, comprehend- 
ing all that comes under the title of General Introduction in Introductions to the Old and New Tes- 
taments. 


HISTORY OF PALESTINE, from the Patriarchal Age to the Present 


Time ; with Introductory Chapters on the Geography and Natural History of the Coun- 
try, and on the Customs and Institutions of the Hebrews. By Joun KitTo, D.D., 
Author of * Scripture Daily Readings,” *‘ Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature,” Sc. With 
upwards of two hundred Illustrations. ' 12mo, cloth, 1,25. 


A very full compendium of the geography and history of Palestine, from the earliest era mentioned 
in Scripture to the present day ; not merely a-dry record of boundaries, and the succession of rulers 
but an intelligible account of the agriculture, habits. of life, literature, science, and art, w ith the <5 
ligious, political, and judicial institutions of the inhabitants of the Holy Land in allages. The de- 
sexiptive portions of the work are increased in value by numerous wood cuts. A more useful and 
instructive book has rarely been published. — NV. Y. Commercial. 


Whoever will read this book till he has possessed himself thoroughly of its contents, will, we ven- 
ture to say, read the Bible with far more intelligence and satisfaction during all the rest of his life. — 
Puritan Recorder. 


Beyond all dispute, this is the best historical compendium of the Holy Land, from the days of 
Abraham to those of the late Pasha of Egypt, Mehemet Ali. — Ldinburgh Review. 


ca In the numerous notices and reviews the work has been strongly recommended, as not only ad- 
mirably adapted to the family, but also as.a text-book for Sabbath and week day schools. 


CRUDEN’S CONDENSED. CONCORDANCE; a New and Complete 


Concordance to the Holy Scriptures. By ALEXANDER CRUDEN. Revised and Re- 
edited by the Rev. Davip Kine, LL.D. Tenth thousand. Octavo, cloth backs, 1,25 


This work is printed from English plates, and-is-a full and fair copy of all that is valuable as.a Con- 
cordance in Cruden’s larger work, in two volumes, which costs jive dollars, while this edition is fur- 
nished at one dollar and twenty-five cents! The principal variation from the larger book consists in 

he exclusion of the Bible Dictionary, (which has always been an incumbrance,) the condensation of 
the quotations of Scripture, arranged under their most obvious heads, which, while it diminishes the 
bulk of the work, greatly facilitates the finding of any required passage. 


We have, in this edition of Cruden, the best made better! That is, the present is better adapted to 
the purposes of a concordance, by the erasure of superfluous references, the omission of unnecessary 
explanations, and the contraction of quotations, etc. It is better as a manual, and better adapted by 
its price, to the means of many who need and ought to possess such a work, than the former large and 
expensive edition. — Puritan Recorder. 


The present edition, in being relieved of some things which contributed to render all former ones 
unnecessarily cumbrous, without adding to the substantial value of the work, becomes an exceedingly 
cheap book. — Albany Argus. 


All in the incomparable work of Cruden that is essential to a Concordance is presented in a volume 
much reduced both in size and price. — Watchman and Reflector. 


Next to the Bible itself, every family should have a concordance: No person can study the Serip- 
tures to advantage without one. Cruden’s is the best. — Baptist Record. I 


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